Before riot, Trump said 'we got to get rid' of Rep. Liz Cheney. Now she supports impeaching him. [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill on Jan. 15, 2019, in Washington.
(Alex Brandon/AP)

By
Michael Kranish
Jan. 12, 2021 at 9:10 p.m. CST

Rep. Liz Cheney’s historic decision Tuesday to vote to impeach President Trump had its roots in a dramatic phone call from her father, former vice president Richard B. Cheney, who was watching events unfold on television last week and warned that she was being verbally attacked by the president.

Cheney (R-Wyo.), the third-ranking member of the House Republican leadership, became the most prominent congressional Republican to call for Trump’s impeachment. “There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution,” Cheney said in a statement. “I will vote to impeach the president.”

Six days earlier, Cheney was in the House chamber, urging that Republicans reject efforts pushed by Trump and many others in her party to challenge the electoral college results that determined Trump had lost his reelection bid. She did not know she was being attacked by Trump, who was delivering the speech that would incite a mob to storm the Capitol, until her father reached her by phone in the House cloakroom.

. . .

After being informed of the president’s tirade by her father, Cheney walked out on the House floor, still hoping to stop the effort backed by Trump to overturn the electoral college votes. Then she heard a mob banging on the chamber’s doors and a shot fired, and realized that an attempted insurrection was underway. She hustled to a secure location and later called Fox News.

More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/cheney-trump-house-impeach/2021/01/12/648c677a-54d2-11eb-a08b-f1381ef3d207_story.html