GOP Rep. Liz Cheney announces she'll vote to impeach Trump and calls his incitement of the Capitol insurrection the greatest presidential 'betrayal' in history

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GOP Rep. Liz Cheney announces she'll vote to impeach Trump and calls his incitement of the Capitol insurrection the greatest presidential 'betrayal' in history
Rep. Liz Cheney, the third-highest ranking House Republican.(Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
  • GOP Rep. Liz Cheney announced on Tuesday that she will vote to impeach President Donald Trump for inciting a deadly insurrection last week.
  • Cheney called Trump's incitement of the mob that breached the US Capitol building on January 6 the greatest "betrayal" of the constitution by any American president.
  • "The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack," she said in a statement. "Everything that followed was his doing."
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Rep. Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican and member of House GOP leadership, announced on Tuesday that she will vote to impeach President Donald Trump for inciting a deadly insurrection last week.

Cheney, the third-highest ranking House Republican, called Trump's incitement of the mob that breached the US Capitol building on January 6 the greatest "betrayal" of the US Constitution by any president in history.

"The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack," she said in a statement. "Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the President. The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not."

She added: "There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution."

Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, has long been critical of Trump and quickly blamed him for the insurrection last Wednesday.

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Trump has expressed no regret for the speech he made urging the mob to protest Congress last Wednesday. He's continued to falsely claim the 2020 presidential election was "rigged" and "stolen" from him through widespread voter fraud.

"People thought what I said was totally appropriate," Trump told reporters on Tuesday of his speech inciting the mob.

Several other Republican lawmakers and members of Trump's administration have condemned Trump's incitement of the riot and his refusal to swiftly condemn it. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has told associates that he supports impeaching the president, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

The White House reportedly believes about two dozen Republican members of Congress to vote to impeach the president.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.

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