Liz Cheney hinted that Trump and Kevin McCarthy may have talked about setting their stories straight on the Capitol riot

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Liz Cheney hinted that Trump and Kevin McCarthy may have talked about setting their stories straight on the Capitol riot
Rep. Liz Cheney.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images
  • Fox's Chris Wallace suggested Trump and McCarthy coordinated their stories on the Capitol riot.
  • Rep. Liz Cheney suggested that McCarthy had withheld information about his conversations with Trump.
  • Cheney was ousted from leadership last week for refusing to back Trump's election-fraud claims.
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Rep. Liz Cheney suggested on Sunday that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was withholding important information about GOP leadership's response to the Capitol riot.

In an interview with the "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace, Cheney suggested McCarthy knew more than he was letting on.

Wallace showed a clip from an April 25 interview in which McCarthy denied that he'd had a conversation with Trump to match their stories about a call they'd had on January 6.

In February, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler said McCarthy had told Republicans that on that call, when he told Trump to call off the rioters, Trump replied, "I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are." McCarthy walked back that claim in the April interview.

When Wallace asked Cheney whether she knew anything about Trump and McCarthy's conversations about that call, Cheney said McCarthy "clearly has facts about that day that an investigation into what happened, into the president's actions, ought to get to the bottom of."

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"And I think that he has important information that needs to be part of any investigation, whether it's the FBI, the Department of Justice, or this commission that I hope will be set up," she said.

"Any conversations that have gone on with the president about the president's potential involvement in January 6, his potential determination not to step in and offer assistance, any conversations that have to do with any members of Congress ... We know that there were conversations in the Oval Office before this about the possibility of declaring martial law and seizing, you know, seizing the ballot machines," Cheney said.

McCarthy's office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on Cheney's remarks.

Liz Cheney hinted that Trump and Kevin McCarthy may have talked about setting their stories straight on the Capitol riot
Rep. Kevin McCarthy and then-President Donald Trump in Bakersfield, California, in February 2020.Evan Vucci/The Associated Press

Cheney was ousted last week from her leadership role in the Republican Party - a move that McCarthy supported - over her refusal to back Trump's baseless claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

She was replaced by Rep. Elise Stefanik, a supporter of Trump's election-fraud conspiracy theory.

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House Democrats announced last week that they had reached a deal with Republicans to form a bipartisan committee to investigate the Capitol riot, in which Trump supporters sought to halt the certification of Joe Biden's election victory.

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