WATCH: Rep. Cheney says Trump ‘refused to defend our nation and our constitution’ | Jan. 6 hearings

Vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney, D-Wyo., gave an opening statement on July 21 as the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack presented its findings to the public. The hearing focused on what President Donald Trump was doing during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol in an effort to interrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory.

Cheney said Trump’s attempts to overturn the election included “corrupting the Justice Department” to pursue baseless claims of voter fraud.

“But by Jan. 6, none of that had worked,” she said. “Only one thing was succeeding on the afternoon of Jan. 6, only one thing was achieving President Trump’s goal: the angry armed mob President Trump sent to the Capitol, broke through security, invaded the Capitol, and forced the vote counting to stop.”

Cheney said that for the first three hours of the attack, Trump did nothing to stop it and refused to help others who were attempting to intercede against the violence.

“His own White House staff members of his own family all implored him to immediately intervene to condemn the violence and instruct his supporters to stand down. Leave the capital and disperse,” Cheney said.

For hours, she added, Trump didn’t answer please from Congress – and even from his own party – “to do what his oath required.”

“He refused to defend our nation and our constitution,” Cheney said.

In the year since its creation, the committee has conducted more than 1,000 interviews, seeking critical information and documents from people witness to, or involved in, the violence that day.

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