WASHINGTON ― Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) slammed Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) for her ongoing efforts to downplay the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S Capitol.
Stefanik has referred to the Donald Trump supporters arrested for attacking the Capitol as “hostages” and on Tuesday called the special committee that investigated the attack a “sham” in a statement.
In response, Cheney, the former vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee, pointed to Stefanik’s statement from the day of the attack, where she called it a “tragic day for America” and said, “The perpetrators of this un-American violence and destruction must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Cheney described the past statement as a “rare moment of honesty” from Stefanik.
“One day she will have to explain how and why she morphed into a total crackpot,” Cheney wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
One possible explanation for Stefanik’s embrace of the rioters who stormed the Capitol is that she is auditioning to be Trump’s vice president. Stefanik campaigned for Trump in New Hampshire this week as he seeks the Republican presidential nomination. Her star has risen while Cheney was chased out of office for her frequent criticism of Trump by Republicans.
Stefanik’s sham remark is in reference to claims Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) recently made about the Jan. 6 committee. Loudermilk, a chairman of a House Administration subcommittee conducting a counter-investigation into the special committee, alleged in a Fox News story Monday that the committee deleted some of its files instead of turning them all over to his subcommittee, contrary to House rules. It’s not clear what material Loudermilk’s looking for.
“It should come as a surprise to no one that Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney’s fake committee illegally deleted records of their sham investigation and obstructed justice,” Stefanik said in her statement. “I applaud Congressman Loudermilk’s efforts to find and decrypt these deleted files and stand by his efforts to bring transparency and accountability.”
Loudermilk has said his subcommittee is investigating “what really happened” on Jan. 6, insinuating that it was something other than a riot by Trump supporters looking to overturn his 2020 election loss. Some Republicans have bogusly suggested it was somehow a setup by the FBI.
At the direction of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Loudermilk’s subcommittee has been releasing security camera footage from the attack, but blurring rioters’ faces to protect them from the Justice Department.