Liz Cheney claps back at Trump's 'lies' in post-inaugural speech
Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) ripped President Donald Trump for lying about the investigation into the Jan. 6 riots when he spoke to supporters in Emancipation Hall following his inauguration on Monday.
Trump spoke "off the cuff" to those who gathered but couldn't attend his speech in the Capitol Rotunda. He told supporters there were many things he wanted to say in that speech but was advised against it.
"I was going to talk about the J6 hostages. But, you'll be happy, because, you know, it's action, not words that count. And you're going to see a lot of action on the J6 hostages," Trump said about the Capitol rioters he has pledged to pardon or whose sentences he wants to commute.
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Trump continued, "And I was going to talk about the things that Joe did today with the pardons of people that were very, very guilty of very bad crimes. Like the "unselect" committee of political thugs. Where they literally, what they did was, they destroyed and deleted all of the information, all of the hearings. Practically not a thing left. They deleted all the information on Nancy Pelosi having turned down the offer of 10,000 soldiers...You don't see any photos. But we have a lot of great photos. But you don't see those photographs. They don't show the people at the Capitol. But I was talking about that, I was going to talk about that. They said please don't bring that up right now, you can bring it up tomorrow. I said, how about how? I'll bring it up right now."
Trump then lashed out at Cheney herself, who chaired the Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection.
"Why are we helping Liz Cheney? I mean, Liz Cheney is a disaster, she's a crying lunatic...Liz Cheney hated the concept of not going to war with everybody. Let's kill everybody, let's spend a lot of money on military equipment. You know where her father works, right? But what she did was incredible. Think of it, They destroyed and deleted all of that information that went on for almost two years against Trump. And the reason they did was because it was all false."
In response to Trump's comments, Cheney posted to social media, "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. 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."