Liz Cheney, the third Republican in the House, on Tuesday called on the Republican party to “make it clear that we are not the party of white supremacy.” Cheney’s statements came during an event hosted by the Reagan Institute.
“It’s very important that we ignore the temptation to look the other way,” Cheney said. “And it is very important, especially for us as Republicans, to make it clear that we are not the party of white supremacy.
“Surely you’ve seen anti-Semitism. You see the symbols of Holocaust denial … you see a Confederate flag being carried through the roundabout,” he said, referring to the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol of the Holocaust. United States. “We, as Republicans in particular, have a duty and an obligation to stand up against ourselves, to stand up against the insurrection.”
Cheney has been one of the most vocal Republicans in protesting against the insurgency and what he considers the role of former President Trump in inciting the January 6 events. investigate the assault. He said part of the commission’s mandate should be to “look clearly” at the false accusations by Trump and his allies about widespread fraud and “stolen” elections that led to the attacks.
“The president and many around him pushed the idea that the election had been stolen. And that’s a dangerous statement. It wasn’t true,” he said. “There were more than 60 court cases in which judges, including judges appointed by President Trump and other Republican presidents, examined the evidence in many cases and said there was no widespread fraud.”
He added that the commission should examine the media organizations that pushed or continue to push the narration of a fraudulent election, saying they are “contributing to a set of very dangerous circumstances”.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in mid-February had also called for the creation of an independent commission similar to the group created after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Illinois Republican Rep. Rodney Davis drafted a proposal for a similar commission last month.
He partisan makeup of this commission is still being negotiated. Democrats hope to allow Congress leaders to nominate two members for each member and President Joe Biden to nominate three members, including the president. Cheney on Tuesday backed the creation of that commission, but said a party split between 7 and 4 was “unacceptable.”
The Wyoming congresswoman said the group should follow the 9/11 commission model and that there should only be retired officials acting as members.
“I think there are a lot of aspects of what happened on the sixth and the days, weeks and months after that that need to be investigated,” Cheney said. “And I think having a commission with the formality we saw in the 9/11 Commission, with the bipartisan involvement we saw in the 9/11 Commission, is very important.”
Cheney’s comments come as other party members, including Republican whip Steve Scalise, continue to promote the narrative of stolen or illegitimate elections. In an interview Sunday on “This Week,” on ABC, Scalise acknowledged that Mr. Biden is the president, but said, “There were some states that did not follow their state laws.”
“There are people worried about what the next election will look like. Will we finally get back to the way the rule of law works?” He said.
Several lawsuits have been dismissed from the federal court alleging that several key states did not follow their own electoral laws.
In January, Cheney broke with the leadership of the Republican Party and most of its groups and was one of ten House Republicans who voted to accuse Trump of his role in the insurgency. Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, a staunch ally of Mr. Trump, later held an “anti-Cheney” rally in Wyoming. The Wyoming Republican Party voted for it Cheney censorship on his vote to accuse.
Cheney also survived an attempt to oust her from her leadership position in Congress, winning a blind vote from 145 to 61.