‘UNFIT FOR FUTURE OFFICE’

Liz Cheney Accuses Trump of ‘Dereliction of Duty’ During Jan. 6 Insurrection

“He could have told them to stand down. He could have told them to go home. He failed to do so,” Cheney said. “It’s hard to imagine...a more serious dereliction of duty than that.”

Liz Cheney, R-Wy., the leading Republican on the House Jan. 6 committee, has called former President Trump’s actions on the day of the riots a “dereliction of duty,” as he refused to intervene despite calls from his children and allies. “Any man who would watch television as police officers were being beaten, as his supporters were invading the Capitol of the United States, is clearly unfit for future office,” Cheney said on ABC’s This Week, [and] clearly can never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again.”

“He crossed lines no American president has ever crossed before,” Cheney said. “When a president refuses to tell the mob to stop, when he refuses to defend any of the coordinate branches of government, he cannot be trusted.”

“The committee has firsthand testimony now that [Trump] was sitting in the dining room next to the Oval Office watching the attack on television," Cheney said. “We have firsthand testimony that his daughter Ivanka went in at least twice to ask him to please stop this violence.”

“He could have told them to stand down. He could have told them to go home—and he failed to do so,” Cheney continued. “It’s hard to imagine a more significant and more serious dereliction of duty than that.” Cheney said there were several “potential criminal statutes at issue here,” and that the committee was considering whether actions such as Trump’s merited “enhanced penalties.”