Cheney calls Trump’s refusal to act on Jan. 6 ‘a supreme dereliction’ of his duty

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) ripped former President Trump on Twitter Wednesday, stating that the former commander-in-chief did not take “specific and immediate action” on Jan. 6, adding that it was “supreme dereliction” of his duty in office.

The tweets come after Cheney, a member of the House select committee to investigate the Capitol riot, read text messages on Monday from Trump allies to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows into the public record. 

The messages from allies including Fox News hosts Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and the former president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., urging Meadows to get Trump to intervene and stop the deadly violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6. 

On Tuesday, House lawmakers voted to hold Meadows in contempt of Congress and Cheney read a second batch of text messages to Meadows from unnamed Republican lawmakers. 

“Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham have now reconfirmed their views that the violence on January 6th was unjustified and unacceptable,” Cheney wrote. 

“Mark Meadows turned over many texts he received to the Committee. Hannity and Ingraham are standing by the texts they sent to Meadows on January 6 urging that President Trump take immediate action to stop the violence,” Cheney continued. 

She added that Trump didn’t act “as the violent mob besieged and invaded the Capitol, attacked and injured scores of Capitol Police, and obstructed Congress’s count of electoral votes.”

“This was a supreme dereliction of the President’s duty, and the @January6thCmte is examining these issues in detail,” she concluded.

Trump did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment. 

Hannity said on Tuesday he stood behind his text messages and that he considers himself to be an “honest and straightforward person.” However, he suggested it was an invasion of his privacy to have his private text messages to Meadows made public by the committee.

“I say the same thing in private that I say to all of you,” he told his television audience. “Liz Cheney knows this. She doesn’t seem to care. She’s interested in one thing and one thing only: smearing Trump and purging him from the party.” 

Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and a frequent critic of the former president, was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for his role in inciting the Capitol riot 

Meadows has said his messages from the Fox News hosts have been “weaponized” in an attempt to cast Trump in a negative light.