Liz Cheney blasts Sen. Tom Cotton for attacking the January 6 hearings after admitting he has not watched the proceedings

• Rep. Liz Cheney called out Tom Cotton for his criticism of Jan. 6 hearings that he hasn't watched.
• The Wyoming lawmaker tweeted that Cotton should view the hearings "before rendering judgment."

Rep. Liz Cheney on Monday hit back at GOP Sen. Tom Cotton after the Arkansas lawmaker criticized the House January 6 committee, while admitting in an interview that he had not watched the full proceedings.

The Wyoming Republican and vice chair of the January 6 panel tweeted a message telling Cotton that she found it odd that he would critique the committee's work without having viewed the witness testimonies.

"Hey @SenTomCotton – heard you on @hughhewitt criticizing the Jan 6 hearings," Cheney wrote. "Then you said the strangest thing; you admitted you hadn't watched any of them."

While on conservative Hugh Hewitt's talk radio show on Monday, Cotton argued that a shortage of "adversarial inquiry" in the hearings concerned him.

"I think what you've seen over the last few week is why Anglo-American jurisprudence going back centuries has found that adversarial inquiry, cross-examination is the best way to get at the truth," he said during the interview.

Cotton continued: "There is no one on that committee who takes a view different from [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi, or even a view that's like we should examine the full context of all of these statements, of all of these recordings, of all of this video."

Cheney in her tweet proceeded to slam Cotton for opining on the January 6 panel despite the fact that he had yet to view a full hearing at the time of the interview.

"Here's a tip: actually watching them before rendering judgment is more consistent with 'Anglo-American jurisprudence,'" she continued in her tweet.

During the interview, Cotton told Hewitt that he didn't watch last Thursday's hearing, where the panel showed video footage of GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri running away from the rioters on January 6 after he had raised his fist at pro-Trump supporters outside the Capitol earlier that day.

"I will confess that I did not watch that hearing, and I have not watched any of the hearings, so I've not seen any of them out of the context that I see a snippet here or there on the news," Cotton said.

"Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the two Republicans, clearly share the views of the Democrats on the subject of the committee's inquiry. If you had someone like Jim Jordan or Jim Banks on there, not only would they be privy to all the information, but they would be probing that information and probing witnesses to try to get at truth, which is again what the Anglo-American legal system has done for centuries," he added.

Kinzinger, who emerged as a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump alongside Cheney after the January 6 riot, is the only other Republican on the committee.

Last year, Pelosi rejected House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's initial selection of Jordan and Banks to the January 6 panel, citing "concern about statements made and actions taken by these Members."