Prior to Thursday’s hearing, Ms. Cheney spent much of the day polishing his opening statements, tapping with his laptop in his suite in the Cannon House office building, one floor above the spacious courtroom with light. of spider where he had to speak. in front of a nationally televised audience. The legislator wrote her own speech, the aides said, in consultation with a small internal circle of advisers in her office and panel lawyers.
Her husband, Philip Perry, and one of her four children were to attend the nightly hearing, but former Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, stayed at their suburban Virginia home. Ms. Cheney, however, talks to her father every day, over the phone or in person, and discussed her remarks with him in the hours leading up to Thursday’s hearing.
Ms. Cheney, who had been one of the most powerful Republicans in the House, was fired from her leadership position last year for strongly and repeatedly condemning Mr. Cheney’s false election claims. Trump and blame him for the riots.
His blunt remarks on his party’s complicity in the riots were previously reported in the book “I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year” by Washington Post journalists Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, and later confirmed by a Congress aide informed of the exchange. Mrs. Cheney’s earthly exhortation to dismiss Mr. Trump was reported in the book “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future,” by Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns, two journalists from The New York Times.
Behind the scenes, Ms. Cheney is known to be one of the most committed and aggressive questions on the January 6 panel. It was she who pushed for a bipartisan team of former intelligence analysts and law enforcement specialists on committee staff.
Ms. Cheney is one of two Republicans on the committee, along with Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who has also openly condemned Mr. Trump. Both were selected by California Democrat spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi after Republicans boycotted the committee in protest of its decision to ban two of its members from participating.