Cheney says Stefanik calling Jan. 6 prisoners hostages a ‘disgrace’

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) dug into Rep. Elise Stefanik’s (R-N.Y.) labelling of Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol rioters sentenced to prison as “hostages,” calling the New York Republican’s word usage a “disgrace” and “outrageous.”

Stefanik earlier Sunday told NBC News’s “Meet the Press” she has “concerns about the treatment of January 6th hostages.” The remark was reminiscent of former President Trump’s rhetoric the previous day about those involved in the Capitol insurrection.

In an interview with Cheney, CBS News “Face the Nation” anchor Margaret Brennan noted how Stefanik’s remarks echo the word Trump used to refer to the prisoners, to which Cheney said, “That’s why she’s using it.”

“It’s outrageous and it’s disgusting,” Cheney continued. “And if you … go and you look at what individuals have been convicted for, who are incarcerated, you’ll find it, you know, extensively, these are people who were involved in violence against police officers in the assault on the Capitol. And it is really disgraceful for Donald Trump be saying what he’s saying and then for those who [are] attempting to enable him or attempting to further their own political careers [to] repeat it.”

“It’s a disgrace, and you cannot say you are a member of a party that believes in the rule of law, you cannot say you are pro-law enforcement if you then go out and you say these people are ‘hostages,’ it’s disgraceful,” Cheney added.

Cheney served as the vice chair of the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack and has not held back in her condemnation of Trump’s role in the incident. As a three-term conservative, Cheney blamed the former president for provoking the violence that day, provoking the ire of several GOP members.

Cheney eventually lost her seat to a Trump-backed challenger, Rep. Harriet Hageman, in the 2022 Wyoming primaries, a state where Trump maintained wide support among voters. 

Stefanik’s and Cheney’s comments come one day after the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack. About 730 people have pleaded guilty to charges, and another 170 have been convicted of at least one charge at a trial, according to an Associated Press database.