The investigation into the Capitol riots should reveal what happened in the Trump White House: Cheney

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U.S. Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) delivers an opening statement during the opening session of the House (Select) Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., July 27, 2021.

Jim Borg | Reuters

Republican Representative Liz Cheney said Tuesday that the House select committee investigating the deadly invasion of the Capitol Building should reveal everything that happened in the White House under Donald Trump on Jan. 6, and suggested the former president could be recalled.

The Wyoming congressman said in opening remarks at the commission’s first public hearing, investigators must discover “what happened every minute of that day in the White House — every phone call, every conversation, every meeting before, during and after the attack.” .

“Dear men and women must step forward. If those responsible are not held accountable, and if Congress does not act responsibly, this will remain a cancer in our constitutional republic, undermining the peaceful transfer of power at the core of our democratic system,” said Cheney, one of the Republicans on the nine-member committee. .

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Earlier Tuesday, Cheney indicated that the investigation may summon Trump and GOP leader Kevin McCarthy.

“Maybe,” Cheney told ABC News Tuesday morning. “The commission will go wherever we want to get to the facts.”

D.C. Police Department officers Michael Fannon (left) and Daniel Hodges (right) arrive to testify before the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol on July 27, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC.

Jim Lo Scalzo | Getty Images

Before the mob stormed the Capitol, Trump held a rally outside the White House and increased pressure on Republicans, including Vice President Mike Pence, to challenge the Electoral College results in key states. He urged the crowd to march to the Capitol, telling them, “If you don’t fight like hell you won’t have a country anymore.”

When mobs of hooligans broke through the ranks of law enforcement officers and streamed into the Capitol, Trump initially criticized Pence on Twitter for refusing to reject the electoral vote. “Pence didn’t have the guts to do what should have been done,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

He later posted a video urging the insurrectionists to go home, adding, “We love you. You are so special.”

The House committee, all of whose members were appointed by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was formed after Senate Republicans voted against an independent 9/11-style commission to study the invasion.

Cheney and Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, both strong critics of Trump in the aftermath of Jan. 6, are the only Republicans on the nine-member panel. House Republicans voted to strip Cheney of her leadership role in the House after she refused to stop criticizing Trump for spreading a lie that the 2020 election was rigged in President Joe Biden’s favour.

McCarthy offered five Republicans to be added to the selection committee, but withdrew all of their names after Pelosi rejected two of his picks. Cheney said last week that one of those holdouts, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, may be a material witness in the investigation.

U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gunnell sits to testify at the opening session of the U.S. House of Representatives (Select) Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., July 27, 2021.

Jim Borg | Reuters

In the first hearing, lawmakers heard moving testimony from four police officers responding to the attempted insurrection on January 6, when a mob of hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to overturn Biden’s presidential victory.

In his prepared statement before the Committee, Sgt. Aquilino Gunnell of the US Capitol Police described being crushed by a group of rioters as they made their way into the building.

“I could feel myself losing oxygen and remember thinking to myself, ‘This is how I’m going to die, as I’m defending this entrance,'” Junel said.

As he was reading the statement, Günel paused once to wipe his eyes with a handkerchief.

“I was caught, beaten, stabbed, all while being called as a traitor to my country,” said Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanon.

“I was in danger of being disarmed and killed with my firearm, as I heard chants: ‘Kill him with his rifle,’” Fanon said.

U.S. Representative Benny Thompson (D-MS), chair of the Select Committee to Inquiry the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, presides over the opening session of the U.S. House (Selection) Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, on Capitol Hill in Washington, United States, 27 July 2021.

Jim Borg | Reuters

Cheney and Representative Benny Thompson, D-Mies, who leads the committee and chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, stressed that the problems that led to the invasion were unresolved.

In the early minutes of the session, Thompson played a video that compiled footage from in and around the Capitol during the siege. The video clip showed rioters attacking police, firing machine guns, throwing objects, smashing windows and other property, threatening lawmakers by name and calling for the election results to be annulled.

“This threat has not gone away,” Thompson said. “It looms over our democracy like a dark cloud.”

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