The GOP vice chair of the January 6 committee unloaded on Donald Trump and his remaining defenders at the outset of Tuesday’s hearing, excoriating the ex-president’s allies for explaining away the president’s responsibility.
In her opening remarks, Rep Liz Cheney insisted that “no rational or sane man in his position” could come to the conclusion that the election was stolen, given the onslaught of evidence to the contrary. She accused him of pushing forward with his scheme to overturn the election anyway.
And she dismantled the idea that Mr Trump was hoodwinked by his closest advisers like Rudy Giuliani, the ex-New York City mayor who led his legal efforts after the 2020 election.
“President Trump is a 76-year-old man. He is not an impressionable child. Just like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his own actions and his own choices,” she said.
Her remarks echoed the committee’s previous findings: That most of Donald Trump’s advisers, including the attorney general and other federal officials, were warning him against pursuing such a course of action as he attempted to overturn the election, but the president persisted anyway.
The committee has focused much of its time establishing that fact, through testimony from White House officials including Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Pat Cipollone, and others.
“Consider how millions of Americans were persuaded to believe what Donald Trump’s closest advisors in his administration did not. These Americans did not have access to the truth...They put their faith, their trust, in Donald Trump...And he deceived them,” the vice chair continued.
Her depiction of Mr Trump as serially incapable of honesty and uncaring about the safety or wellbeing of his supporters who showed up believing his election lies on Jan 6 comes as the committee on Tuesday plans to hear testimony from a Trump supporter who has plead guilty to criminal charges as a result of his actions on the president’s behalf that day.
The lawmakers will also hear testimony from an ex-spokesperson of the Proud Boys, a right-wing militia group whose members were in wide attendance on Jan 6.
