Liz Cheney: We Won’t Let Trump Hide Behind ‘Phony Claims’ During Jan. 6 .../ US Capitol attack: Liz Cheney says Trump’s conduct was ‘a supreme dereliction of duty’

US Capitol attack: Liz Cheney says Trump’s conduct was ‘a supreme dereliction of duty’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2022/jan/06/us-capitol-attack-one-year-anniversary-trump-pence-biden-house-committee-live

 

Here’s more from Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the special House committee investigating the 6 January attack on the US Capitol, who was on the Today Show this morning.

 

She told Savannah Guthrie that our institutions “only held because of people who were willing to stand up against the pressure from former president Trump, people in his own department of justice...elected officials at the state level who stood up to him and the law enforcement officers here at the Capitol.”

 

“We came very close, and we need to recognize how important it is that the system depends on individuals and that it never happens again,” Cheney said.

 

Guthrie asked Cheney if she thought our democracy was still in a fragile state. Cheney replied, “The threat continues.”

 

“Donald Trump continues to make the same claims that he knows caused violence on January 6 and it’s very important, if you look at what’s happening in my own party, the Republican party, rather than reject what happened on the 6th, reject the lies about the election and make clear that a president who engaged in those activities can never be president again - unfortunately, too many in my own party are embracing the former president, looking the other way and refusing to minimize the danger,” Cheney said. “That’s how democracies die and we simply cannot let that happen.”

 

25m ago

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Liz Cheney: Trump’s conduct on day of attack was ‘a supreme dereliction of duty’

Hello, live blog readers.

 

Today marks the one-year anniversary of one of the worst days in US history: the 6 January attack on the US Capitol. The day a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election result of Joe Biden’s victory – clashing with police, destroying property and leaving five people dead.

 

In his remarks from the Capitol steps today, Biden is expected to lay out the “singular responsibility” that Trump has for the “chaos and carnage” of that day, according to the White House.

 

Though his attorney general, Merrick Garland, may have disappointed some critics calling for swifter and harsher justice – in particular for the former president – with his speech yesterday detailing the justice department investigation, Biden’s strong stance against Trump is sure to draw him favors. Biden has been “clear-eyed” about the “threat the former president represents to our democracy”, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said in a briefing on Wednesday.