Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) on Monday called out Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) over his criticisms of the House Jan. 6 committee hearings during an interview in which the senator admitted to not having watched any of the panel’s proceedings.
“Hey @SenTomCotton - heard you on @hughhewitt criticizing the Jan 6 hearings,” the panel’s vice chair wrote on Twitter. “Then you said the strangest thing; you admitted you hadn’t watched any of them.”
Cotton told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt he had only watched excerpts from the hearings.
“I have not watched any of the hearings, so I’ve not seen any of them out of the context that I see a snippet here or there on the news,” Cotton said.
Cotton also took issue with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to reject Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.) as committee members to — in her words — protect “the integrity of the investigation.”
“Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the two Republicans, clearly share the views of the Democrats on the subject of the committee’s inquiry,” Cotton said of the Republicans on the Jan. 6 committee. “If you had someone like Jim Jordan or Jim Banks on there, not only would they be privy to all the information, but they would be probing that information and probing witnesses to try to get at truth, which is again what the Anglo-American legal system has done for centuries.”
Cheney hit back citing Cotton’s own disclosure he hasn’t actually watched any of the panel’s hearings.
“Here’s a tip: actually watching them before rendering judgment is more consistent with ‘Anglo-American jurisprudence,’” Cheney wrote.
While the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot has wrapped up its summer hearings, it has indicated its investigation is far from over.
Committee member Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) tweeted a video Monday showing former President Donald Trump refused to say the Capitol rioters did not “represent” him in the aftermath of the insurrection.