Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans on a committee investigating the assault on the US Capitol, told Representative Jim Jordan “you f****** did this” as members of Congress were evacuated from the House of Representatives on 6 January, 2021.
She confirmed the incident – which was first reported in I Alone Can Fix It by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker – to Michael Barbaro of The New York Times, who quoted Ms Cheney as saying to Mr Jordan to “get away from me, you f****** did this”.
Ms Cheney said: “He came over to me and basically said, ‘We need to get the ladies away from the aisle’. I had watched for the months since the election what was going on, and the lies that had been told to people. It was both that I certainly didn’t need his help, and secondly I thought clearly that the lie they had been spreading and telling people had absolutely contributed to what we were living through at that moment.”
Rep Cheney, presiding over an inquiry that has sought Mr Jordan’s cooperation, said she held the congressman and other GOP lawmakers who amplified Donald Trump’s baseless narratives that fuelled the assault liable for the attack as it was underway.
“I think what [House lawmakers] certainly shared was an understanding that Donald Trump was responsible,” she said on the outlet’s The Daily podcast. “I think you can see that absolutely in many of the public comments.”
One year later, the congresswoman was joined on the floor of the House by her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney – the only two Republicans who participated in memorial events at the Capitol on Thursday to recognise the deaths of law enforcement officers in the wake of the attack.
The Wyoming congresswoman – ostracised from her own party after her condemnation of the assault and participation in a probe into the events leading up to and surrounding the violent attempt to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election – received hugs and fist bumps from other House lawmakers.
Mr Cheney told reporters that the current Republican leadership is “not a leadership that resembles any of the folks I knew when I was here for 10 years”.
In a December letter to Mr Jordan seeking his cooperation with the investigation, House select committee chairman Bennie Thompson said that the committee believes Mr Jordan “had at least one and possibly multiple communications with President Trump” on 6 January.
The committee’s request for cooperation to Fox News personality Sean Hannity quotes a text message he wrote to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Mr Jordan in the days leading up to the former president’s departure from office ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration.
Mr Hannity reportedly wrote: “Guys, we have a clear path to land the plane in 9 days. He can’t mention the election again. Ever. I did not have a good call with him today. And worse, I’m not sure what is left to do or say, and I don’t like not knowing if it’s truly understood. Ideas?”
