On Monday, Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney held center stage at the ludicrous January 6 Commission. Cheney is one of our Congressional quislings who accepted Nancy Pelosi’s invitation to be her handpicked co-chair of a commission that has its sole purpose of trying to tar her colleagues as “insurrectionists.” Cheney, who was removed from the Wyoming GOP by a vote of its members, was chosen to read some selected text messages from former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows to various people as the Captial riot was underway. This is some hard-hitting stuff in a being nibbled-to-death-by-a-duck kind of way.
The video of her statement is below, and a complete transcript is at the end of the post. However, I’m interested in one statement she makes about Donald Trump’s actions. I’ve cued up the video to the relevant portion.
First, President Trump’s failure to stop the violence. On January 6th, our Capitol building was attacked and invaded. The mob was summoned to Washington by President Trump. And, as many of those involved have admitted – on videotape, in social media, and in Federal District Court – they were provoked to violence by President Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen.
The violence was evident to all – it was covered in real time by almost every news channel. But, for 187 minutes, President Trump refused to act when action by our President was required, indeed essential, and compelled by his oath to our Constitution.
First off, let’s do some basic math. The 187 minutes Cheney refers to equates to 3 hours and 7 minutes. I also owe a major hat tip to The Federalist for picking up on this nonsense.
Using the timelines put together by the New York Times and the Washington Post, this is the sequence of events for January 6.
President Trump starts his speech around noon. At about 12:15 p.m., he says:
Anyone you want, but I think right here, we’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them.
Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated.
I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.
Some people begin leaving the speech and moving down Pennsylvania Avenue towards the Capitol. By this time, another crowd has gathered at the Capitol (read New Information About the Capitol Riot Demolishes the Media Narrative and Asks Questions That Need To Be Answered for some insights into the composition of this “other” crowd).
The first crowd barriers outside the Capitol are breached at 12:53 p.m. President Trump is still speaking.
President Trump’s speech ended at about 1:12 p.m.
Our exciting adventures and boldest endeavors have not yet begun. My fellow Americans, for our movement, for our children, and for our beloved country.
And I say this despite all that’s happened. The best is yet to come.
So we’re going to, we’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I love Pennsylvania Avenue. And we’re going to the Capitol, and we’re going to try and give.
The Democrats are hopeless, they never vote for anything. Not even one vote. But we’re going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones because the strong ones don’t need any of our help. We’re going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.
So let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.
I want to thank you all. God bless you and God Bless America.
Thank you all for being here. This is incredible. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Around 2:15 p.m., the first members of the crowd enter the Capitol. At 2:20 p.m., both the House and the Senate adjourn.
The first indication that President Trump had an idea of what was going on at the Capitol occurred during a 2:26 p.m. phone call with Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville. During that conversation, President Trump said, “I know we’ve got problems.”
At 2:38 p.m., President Trump tweets, “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!”
At 3:13 p.m., President Trump tweets, “I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!” Two minutes later, Ashli Babbitt is executed in cold blood. By 4:17 p.m., President Trump had released a video asking everyone to go home.
Oddly enough, the video was quickly taken down by Twitter because it was considered to be encouraging the riot.
Personally, I don’t agree with the idea that President Trump incited the riot. Furthermore, managing that riot was the responsibility of the Capitol Police and their law enforcement allies, not the president. President Trump had exactly the same culpability for starting and responsibility for stopping the January 6 riot that Nancy Pelosi or any other elected Democrat had for the George Floyd memorial rioting throughout the summer of 2020. Be that as it may, there is no math that gets over three hours of inaction by President Trump. By any measure, President Trump reacted just a few minutes after he was apprised of the situation and probably acted as best he could given the particulars of the situation. That is unless by action you are demanding that he personally go to Capitol Hill and try to disperse the crowd like Moses parting the Red Sea. If President Trump had gone to Capitol Hill, that would have been used as evidence that he was personally responsible for the rioting, and he was there to egg on the crowd.
Where Cheney got the 187 number is remarkably easy to discover. She cribbed it from this Washington Post article garishly headlined BLOODSHED: For 187 harrowing minutes, the president watched his supporters attack the Capitol — and resisted pleas to stop them.
By offering up a falsified narrative, Cheney joins her buddy Adam Schiff as being exposed as people who will say anything in order to damage President Trump and the GOP. A couple of days ago, Adam Schiff was nailed as he used selectively edited text messages to try to damage Ohio Republican Jim Jordan. See The GOP Response to the Lies of Adam Schiff and the January 6 Commission Doesn’t Give Anyone Much of a Reason to Vote for Them and Adam Schiff Gets Caught Doctoring January 6th Text Messages, Exposes His Imbecility in the Process. Cheney also attempted to misrepresent the content and context of text messages between Donald Trump, Jr., and some Fox News personalities as showing he didn’t care about the riot when they showed just the opposite, see Liz Cheney Publicizes Donald Trump Jr. Text Messages, Manages to Kneecap Her January 6th Conspiracy Narrative.
Any thoughts you may have had about the quisling Liz Cheney being an honorable person under siege by wild-eyed Trump supporters should have been put to rest by the shameful performance she displayed Monday. She is as much a partisan as Adam Schiff or Jerry Nadler. She has no regard for or interest in finding the truth about January 6–or November 3–and is hellbent on creating a narrative that supports the ridiculous claim of an insurrection personally led by President Trump.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
We are here to address a very serious matter, contempt of Congress by a former Chief of Staff to a former President of the United States. We do not do this lightly. And indeed, we had hoped not to take this step at all. For weeks, we worked with Mr. Meadows’ counsel to reach an agreement on cooperation. But shortly before his scheduled deposition, Mr. Meadows walked away from his commitment to appear, and informed us he would no longer cooperate. We believe Mr. Meadows is improperly asserting executive and other privileges. But this vote on contempt today relates principally to Mr. Meadows’ refusal to testify about text messages and other communications that he admits are not privileged. He has not claimed, and does not have any privilege bases to refuse entirely to testify regarding these topics. Let me give just three examples:
First, President Trump’s failure to stop the violence. On January 6th, our Capitol building was attacked and invaded. The mob was summoned to Washington by President Trump. And, as many of those involved have admitted – on videotape, in social media, and in Federal District Court – they were provoked to violence by President Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen.
The violence was evident to all – it was covered in real time by almost every news channel. But, for 187 minutes, President Trump refused to act when action by our President was required, indeed essential, and compelled by his oath to our Constitution. Mr. Meadows received numerous text messages, which he has produced without any privilege claim – imploring that Mr. Trump take the specific action we all knew his duty required.
These texts leave no doubt: the White House knew exactly what was happening at the Capitol. Republican members of Congress and others wrote to Mark Meadows as the attack was underway:
-“Hey, Mark, protestors are literally storming the Capitol. Breaking windows on doors. Rushing in. Is Trump going to say something?”
-“We are under siege up here at the Capitol.”
-“They have breached the Capitol.”
-“There’s an armed standoff at the House Chamber door.”
-“We are all helpless.”
Dozens of texts, including from Trump administration officials, urged immediate action by the President:
-“POTUS has to come out firmly and tell protestors to dissipate. Someone is going to get killed”
-“Mark, he needs to stop this. Now”
-“TELL THEM TO GO HOME”
-“POTUS needs to calm this s*** down.”
Indeed, according to the records, multiple Fox News hosts knew the President needed to act immediately. They texted Meadows that:
-“Hey Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home…this is hurting all of us…he is destroying his legacy.” Laura Ingraham wrote.
-“Please get him on tv. Destroying everything you have accomplished.” Brian Kilmeade wrote.
-“Can he make a statement?…Ask people to leave the Capitol.” Sean Hannity urged.
As the violence continued, one of the President’s sons texted Meadows:
“He’s got to condemn this s*** Asap. The Capitol Police tweet is not enough.” Donald Trump, Jr. texted.
Meadows responded: “I’m pushing it hard. I agree.”
Still, President Trump did not immediately act.
Donald Trump, Jr. texted again and again, urging action by the President:
“We need an Oval address. He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand.”
But hours passed without the necessary action by the President.
These non-privileged texts are further evidence of President Trump’s supreme dereliction of duty during those 187 minutes. And Mr. Meadows testimony will bear on another key question before this Committee: Did Donald Trump, through action or inaction, corruptly seek to obstruct or impede Congress’s official proceeding to count electoral votes? Mark Meadows testimony will inform our legislative judgments.
Yet he has refused to give any testimony at all – even regarding non-privileged topics. He is in contempt of Congress.
Second, Mr. Meadows also has knowledge regarding President Trump’s efforts to persuade state officials to alter their official election results. In Georgia, for instance, Mr. Meadows participated in a phone call between President Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger. Meadows was on the phone when President Trump asked the Secretary of State to quote “find 11, 780 votes” to change the result of the presidential election in Georgia. At the time of the call, Mr. Meadows appears to have been texting other participants on the call. Again, Mr. Meadows has no conceivable privilege basis to refuse to testify on this topic. He is in contempt of Congress.
Third, in the weeks before January 6th, President Trump’s appointees at the Justice Department informed him repeatedly that the President’s claims of election fraud were not supported by the evidence, and that the election was not, in fact, stolen. President Trump intended to appoint Jeffrey Clark as Attorney General, in part so that Mr. Clark could alter the Department of Justice’s conclusions regarding the election. Mr. Clark has now informed the Committee that he anticipates potential criminal prosecution related to these matters and intends in upcoming testimony to invoke his 5th Amendment Privilege against self-incrimination. As Mr. Meadows non-privileged texts reveal, Meadows communicated multiple times with a member of Congress who was working with Clark. Mr. Meadows has no basis to refuse to testify regarding those communications. He is in contempt.
Conclusion: January 6th was without precedent. There has been no stronger case in our nation’s history for a congressional investigation into the actions of a former president. This investigation is not like other congressional inquiries. Our Constitution, the structure of our institutions and the rule of law – which are at the heart of what makes America great — are at stake. We cannot be satisfied with incomplete answers, or half-truths; and we cannot surrender to President Trump’s efforts to hide what happened. We will be persistent, professional and non-partisan. We must get to the objective truth and ensure that January 6th never happens again.