Congresswoman Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Asked her colleagues to interrupt former President Donald Trump, as his second Senate impeachment trial is scheduled to begin this week.
Cheney, the House’s third Republican, was one of 10 House Republicans to vote in favor of Trump’s impeachment last month for his role in the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill. Cheney was censored by her state party for voting and faces a challenge in the primaries, although she easily won a vote of confidence last week to remain president of the House Republican Conference.
“We have to look very closely at who we are and what we stand for, what we believe in,” Cheney told Fox News Sunday. “I think when you look at them both [Trump’s] actions that led to January 6, that he was impeached in a bipartisan way, the fact that he lost the presidency, the fact that we lost the Senate. We have to be in a position where we can say that we defend principles, ideals. “
“We must not embrace the ex-president,” he added.
Cheney’s comments were made after minority leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Met with Trump in Mar-a-Lago late last month and has since softened his language about the role of Trump in the riot.
After a vote in which 45 Senate Republicans tried to declare Trump’s impeachment trial unconstitutional because he has already stepped down, it seems highly unlikely that the former president will be convicted, as it takes at least 67 votes to do so. But Cheney said that in terms of responsibility for the ex-president’s role in the turmoil, the Senate trial “is a snapshot”.
“There is a massive criminal investigation underway, there will be a massive criminal investigation of everything that happened on January 6 and the days before,” said Cheney. “People will want to know exactly what the president was doing. They will want to know, for example, if the tweet he sent calling Vice President Pence a coward while the attack was underway, if that tweet, for example, it was a premeditated effort to provoke violence. “
“There are a lot of questions that need to be answered and there will be a lot of criminal investigations looking at all aspects of it and everyone involved, as it should be,” she said, adding, “We have never seen this type of attack by a US president. United States to another branch of government, and that can never happen again. “
Cheney said that if she were a senator, she would weigh the evidence and arguments before reaching a conclusion, but said that what is already known is worthy of impeachment.
“What we already know is the biggest violation of his oath by any president in the country’s history,” she said. “And this is not something that we can just ignore or pretend it didn’t happen or try to move on. We have to make sure that it never happens again.”
On Sunday, Senate Republicans continued to express doubts that the Senate would condemn the former president.
During an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union”, Senator Pat Toomey, R-Pa., Said that while he believes the trial is constitutional, a conviction is “very unlikely” and Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C., told CBS’s “Face the Nation” program about the trial: “The outcome is really not in doubt.”
Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Told ABC’s “This Week” program that he believes Trump should not be convicted in the trial because “the constitution does not provide for the impeachment trial of a former president”.
Asked whether he thinks the president should be held responsible for his conduct, Wicker said, “If being held accountable means being impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate, the answer is no.”
Senator Bill Cassidy, R-La., Said during an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” program that he believes the House “did an incredibly bad job of building a case before its impeachment vote.”
Cheney said that much of the setback she has faced since voting for impeachment is the result of misinformation.
“They believe that [Black Lives Matter] and Antifa was behind what happened here on Capitol Hill, “she said of the state party leaders who voted to censor it. It just isn’t the case. It’s not true, and we will have a lot of work to do. People have been deceived.”
“How much President Trump, in the months before January 6, spread the notion that the election was stolen or that the election was rigged was a lie, and people need to understand that,” she continued. “We need to make sure that we, as Republicans, are the party of truth and that we are being honest about what really happened in 2020, so that we have a chance to win in 2022 and win back the White House in 2024.”
