Republican former Congresswoman Liz Cheney blasted the “depravity” of former President Donald Trump and cited evidence from special counsel Jack Smith while campaigning with Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday.
Cheney, one of Trump’s most outspoken Republican critics since the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, joined this year’s Democratic presidential nominee on stage in Ripon, Wisconsin—a city generally considered the birthplace of the Republican Party—to urge “reasonable people from all across the political spectrum” to vote for Harris.
“Donald Trump was willing to sacrifice our Capitol and to allow law enforcement officers to be beaten and brutalized in his name, and to violate the law and the Constitution in order to seize power for himself,” Cheney said. “I don’t care if you are a Democrat or a Republican or an independent: That is depravity and we must never become numb to it.”
“Any person who would do these things can never be trusted with power again,” she added. “We must defeat Donald Trump on November 5 … Donald Trump is not fit to lead this good and great nation.”
Anna Moneymaker
Newsweek reached out for comment to Trump’s office via email on Thursday night.
To support her argument, the ex-congresswoman referenced a particularly jarring moment taken from a redacted court filing of Smith’s federal election subversion evidence against Trump, which was unsealed by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan this week.
Smith’s evidence says that Trump called then-Vice President Mike Pence on the morning of January 6, 2021, pleading with him not to certify President Joe Biden‘s election win during a joint session of Congress later that day. Pence refused to do so and Trump was allegedly “incensed.”
After Trump supporters angered over the election result stormed the Capitol, the former president complained in a post to Twitter, now X, that Pence “didn’t have the courage” to overturn the result. Rioters later chanted “Hang Mike Pence.”
One minute after Trump posted the tweet denouncing Pence, the Secret Service and U.S. Capitol Police took the vice president to a secure location inside the Capitol.
According to Smith’s evidence, an unnamed White House aide then ran to tell Trump that Pence had been taken to a secure location “in hopes that (Trump) would take action to ensure Pence’s safety.”
Trump allegedly replied: “So what?” and appeared unconcerned about Pence’s safety as the rioters walked around the Capitol looking for him.
“When he learned that Vice President Pence was not going to abandon his oath and help Trump seize power, Trump sent out a tweet attacking and further inflaming the mob,” Cheney said on Thursday, recalling Smith’s evidence.
“Shortly after that … [a Trump] aide received a phone call alerting him that the vice president had been evacuated for his own safety,” she continued. “After this aide delivered that news, Donald Trump looked up at him and said, ‘So what.'”