Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) blasted President Trump for false statements he made about the now-disbanded Jan. 6 committee, calling them a “reminder that neither lies nor the liar who tells them get better with age.”
Cheney’s comments came after Trump gave a speech following his Inaugural address to a crowd of supporters gathered at the Capitol who were unable to sit in the hall where he was sworn in.
In that speech, Trump repeated a number of false claims about the committee, again accusing them of deleting evidence. The committee’s final report, depositions and other materials are available on a public website.
“Trump’s remarks in the Capitol Visitor Center today were a reminder that neither lies nor the liar who tells them get better with age. The Select Committee evidence is available on multiple websites and, as a criminal defendant, Donald Trump has had access to all the transcripts for years,” Cheney, the panel’s vice chair, wrote on X.
“Remember Trump’s character: He sat in his dining room watching on television as his supporters attacked our Capitol and brutally assaulted law enforcement. For hours, he refused to instruct the mob to leave. The truth will never change.”
During the ad-libbed speech, Trump spent ample time ranting about former President Biden’s pardon of the nine members of the panel.
He called Cheney a “lunatic”
“Why are we helping some of these people? Why are we helping Liz Cheney? She’s a disaster – she’s a crying luntaic,” he said, going on to call former Rep. Adam Kinziner (R-Ill.) a “super cryer” and blame the attack that day on former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
Trump then complained the panel “destroyed and deleted all of that information.”
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) has previously said the panel retained all information it was legally required to retain. While they retained all depositions and witness testimony, they did not retain video recordings of those not used in the hearings.
Cheney and Thompson thanked Biden Monday for the preemptive pardon, even as the members said they had not done anything criminal by investigating Trump.
“We express our gratitude to President Biden for recognizing that we and our families have been continuously targeted not only with harassment, lies and threats of criminal violence, but also with specific threats of criminal prosecution and imprisonment by members of the incoming administration, simply for doing our jobs and upholding our oaths of office. We have been pardoned today not for breaking the law but for upholding it,” the two said in a statement.
