Former Republican Representative Liz Cheney on Friday checked Donald Trump over his latest string of “malicious lies,” after the president-elect continued his push to rewrite the history of the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol just days before the fourth anniversary of the attack.
“Donald, this is not the Soviet Union. You can’t change the truth and you cannot silence us,” Cheney wrote in a social media post.
Her remarks come after Trump complained on his Truth Social platform about President Joe Biden honouring both her and Democrat Representative Bennie Thompson — who helped lead a House committee that investigated the deadly January 6, 2021, attack — with the Presidential Citizens Medal.
She responded to Trump by reminding him of lies he’d told about the 2020 presidential election and of his failed coup attempt before the end of his first term in the White House.
“Remember how you sent a mob to our Capitol and then watched the violence on television and refused for hours to instruct the mob to leave? Remember how your former Vice President prevented you from overturning our Republic? We remember,” Cheney wrote.
“And now, as you take office again, the American people need to reject your latest malicious falsehoods and stand as the guardrails of our Constitutional Republic — to protect the America we love from you.”
Trump’s Truth Social post featured false claims about Cheney and the House January 6 committee, incorrectly stating that members “destroyed and deleted all evidence” from its investigation into the attack. (The panel’s final report and supporting materials are available online.)
It also falsely claimed that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “refused to accept the help which was offered for security” on the day of the insurrection. (This has long been debunked.)
“Liz Cheney, Cryin’ Adam Kinzinger, Bennie Thompson, and the rest of these dishonest Thugs have gotten away with horrible things under the pretence of January 6th,” the president-elect wrote of those who’d served on the House committee.
“They have destroyed the lives of many people, and are rewarded by getting Biden Fake Medals. This is not America. January 20th cannot come fast enough,” he added, referring to the date of his upcoming presidential inauguration.
Last month, Trump accused Cheney of “egregious and unthinkable acts of crime” after Republicans criticized the House committee in an interim report.
Cheney, in response, said that the Republican-backed report “disregards the truth” and described Trump as a “cruel and vindictive man.”