Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), the third-ranking House Republican, on Tuesday warned her party against becoming complacent following the deadly Capitol insurrection last month as she urged the GOP to “make clear that we aren’t the party of white supremacy.”
Cheney was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Trump last month for “incitement of insurrection.” The move drew backlash from both Trump loyalists in Congress as well as Republicans in her own state. Despite refusing to apologize for voting in favor of Trump’s impeachment, and the Wyoming GOP censuring her, Cheney held onto her leadership post in a secret-ballot vote.
During a virtual foreign policy event hosted by the Reagan Institute on Tuesday, Cheney called on Republican lawmakers to forcefully condemn those responsible for the Capitol insurrection last month that left five dead, so that the GOP isn’t tarnished with the reputation of condoning white supremacy.
“It’s very important for us to ignore the temptation to look away,” Cheney said. “It’s very important, especially for us as Republicans, to make clear that we aren’t the party of white supremacy.”
Cheney noted anti-Semitic remarks, symbols of Holocaust denial and the Confederate flag at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“I think we as Republicans, in particular, have a duty and an obligation to stand against that, to stand against insurrection,” Cheney said.
Cheney stood by her criticism of Trump inciting his supporters who breached the Capitol by blasting the former president’s failure to firmly condemn the attack while lawmakers feared for their safety as an “existential threat to who we are” that “can’t be minimized or trivialized, and it can never happen again.”
Cheney then took aim at Trump’s bogus claim of widespread election fraud that culminated in the Capitol insurrection.
“The idea that we in Congress were going to step in and somehow overturn the results of the election on Jan. 6 was never true, was unconstitutional, was wrong. And I think facing the facts about what happened in the election, I hope that’s something that can become partly from the 9/11 commission,” Cheney said, referring to the independent 9/11-style commission that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced earlier this month to investigate the Capitol insurrection.
Cheney also railed against media outlets that fed into Trump’s falsehoods alleging a “stolen” election by accusing the outlets of “contributing to a very dangerous set of circumstances.”
Cheney implored Republican lawmakers to “take our oaths and obligations seriously,” because that approach will steer both the GOP and the country forward.
“We will right the unforgivable wrongs of Jan. 6,” Cheney said.
Watch Cheney’s remarks below:
