House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has selected the members of the Select Committee that will investigate the attack on the Capitol that occurred on January 6. Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming was one of those who was selected. She was also one of only two Republicans who voted in favor of establishing the committee to begin with.

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Because of her frequent criticism of Trump, as well as her refusal to downplay the events that took place on January 6, Cheney was voted to be removed from her leadership position within the GOP. She was replaced in her role by Trump loyalist Elise Stefanik.

On the morning before her removal, Cheney made several comments to her colleagues, saying that her issues with Trump stem from the idea that his repeated false claims that the 2020 election was stolen was "an attack on democracy."

“If you want leaders who will enable and spread his destructive lies, I’m not your person; you have plenty of others to choose from," Cheney said on the House floor. "That will be their legacy. But I promise you this, after today, I will be leading the fight to restore our party and our nation to conservative principles, to defeating socialism, to defending our republic, to making the GOP worthy again of being the party of Lincoln.”

Even in the face of her removal, multiple censures from the Republican Party (including one from her own state), Cheney has maintained that the 2020 election was not stolen, and that there needs to be an investigation into the January 6 attack on the Capitol that tried to prove otherwise.

Cheney voted to establish the select committee, and she has now accepted a position within it.

"I'm honored to have been named to serve on the January 6th select committee," Cheney stated in a press release. "Congress is obligated to conduct a full investigation of the most serious attack on our Capitol since 1814. That day saw the most sacred space in our Republic overrun by an angry and violent mob attempting to stop the counting of electoral votes and threatening the peaceful transfer of power."

Cheney said in cases such as this, parties do not matter; those in leadership have a responsibility and a commitment to the Constitution.

"What happened on January 6th can never happen again," she said. "Those who are responsible for the attack need to be held accountable and this select committee will fulfill that responsibility in a professional, expeditious, and non-partisan manner. Our oath to the Constitution, our commitment to the rule of law, and the preservation of the peaceful transfer of power must always be above partisan politics."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has the authority to appoint 13 members to the committee, and has already appointed Democratic representatives Bennie Thompson, Elaine Luria, Jamie Raskin, Stephanie Murphy, Pete Aguilar, Adam Schiff, and Zoe Lofgren, in addition to Cheney.

"The next step for us has always been to seek and to find the truth," Pelosi said in a press conference. "We want to do so in the most patriotic and nonpartisan way so the American people have confidence in the results."

 

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