Trump could be forced to testify over Capitol riot, says Liz Cheney: ‘This is not a game’

‘There are some in my party, including Leader McCarthy, who continue to act as though this is about partisan politics, I think it’s really sad. I think it’s a disgrace’

Congresswoman Liz Cheney, the former House Republican conference chair, left open the possibility of subpoenaing former President Donald Trump and current House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy as part of the hearings over the violence at the Capitol on 6 January.

Miss Cheney made the suggestion on Tuesday morning on ABC’s Good Morning America.

“This is absolutely not a game. This is deadly serious”, she said.

“There are some in my party, including Leader McCarthy, who continue to act as though this is about partisan politics, I think it’s really sad. I think it’s a disgrace.”

During the interview, Ms Cheney was asked by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos what she meant by her now widely-reported comment to Rep Jim Jordan, one of the top promoters of Mr Trump’s falsehoods about the 2020 election, during the riot: “Get away from me, you did this”.

In response, the Republican congresswoman said that her party’s own leader in the House could very well be a material witness to the events of the riot.

“I think that Congressman Jordan may well be a material witness,” said Ms Cheney, adding: “He’s somebody who was involved in a number of meetings in the lead-up to what happened on 6 January, involved in planning for 6 January, certainly for the objections that day as he said publicly, so he may well be a material witness”.

Rep. Liz Cheney reveals that subpoenas for House GOP Leader McCarthy and former president Trump are on the table ahead of investigation into Jan. 6 siege: "The American people deserve the truth … and we have to make sure that it never happens again." https://t.co/ZN0z7GwAPk pic.twitter.com/LlFpgmNGXr

— Good Morning America (@GMA) July 27, 2021

She was then asked whether the former president was a “material witness” as well, to which the congresswoman responded that every phone call and message sent from the White House during the riot should be made public.

“They deserve to know about every phone call that was made in and out of the White House, every meeting, every discussion that was had that day in the White House as the Capitol building was under attack and so the committee will go wherever it needs to go to get to the facts”, said Ms Cheney.