Liz Cheney says Trump 'does not have a role as the leader' of the GOP going forward
- Rep. Liz Cheney reaffirmed on Sunday her vote to impeach Trump.
- "The oath that I took to the Constitution compelled me to vote for impeachment," she said.
- Cheney said that "people have been lied to" by Trump's repeated echoing of debunked claims on voter fraud.
Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming on Sunday reaffirmed her decision to impeach former President Donald Trump and said she would not resign from her seat.
During an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican, said that she felt "compelled" to support Trump's removal.
"I think people all across Wyoming understand and recognize that our duty is to the Constitution," she said in response to being formally censured by the Wyoming Republican Party on February 6. "The oath that I took to the Constitution compelled me to vote for impeachment and it doesn't bend to partisanship, it doesn't bend to political pressure. It's the most important oath that we take and so I will stand by that and I will continue to fight for all of the issues that matter so much to us all across Wyoming."
Cheney was one of 10 House Republicans who broke with the Republican Party to impeach Trump for "incitement of insurrection" for his role in the deadly January 6 Capitol riots.
Last week, Cheney survived an effort to remove her from her leadership role, with House Republicans backing her in a 145-61 vote.
In the interview, Cheney blasted Trump's longstanding efforts to sow doubts into President Joe Biden's victory and the electoral process, which culminated in masses of rioters attempting to stop the Electoral College certification.
"People in the party are mistaken," she said. "They believe that BLM and Antifa were behind what happened here at the Capitol. It's just simply not the case, not true and we are going to have a lot of work we have to do."
"People have been lied to," Cheney said. "The extent to which President Trump, for months leading up to January 6th, spread the notion that the election had been stolen or that the election was rigged, was a lie. And people need to understand that."
When asked if Trump and controversial Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia both still held places in the GOP, Cheney signaled some self-assessment for the party.
"We really have to take a hard look at who we are and what we stand for," she said.
Cheney connected Trump's reelection loss and the collapse of the GOP majority in the Senate with his troubles regarding the Capitol riots.
"Somebody who has provoked an attack on the United States Capitol to prevent the counting of electoral votes, which resulted in five people dying, who refused to stand up immediately when he was asked to stop the violence...that is a person who does not have a role as the leader of our party going forward," Cheney said.