WASHINGTON — One day after an interview aired in which President-elect Donald Trump said everyone on the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol should be jailed, former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said his comments are “a continuation of his assault on the rule of law and the foundations of our republic.”

What You Need To Know

  • Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said President-elect Donald Trump's comments during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday are “a continuation of his assault on the rule of law and the foundations of our republic”

  • During the interview, Trump said everyone on the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol should be jailed

  • Jan. 6 committee member Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., told Trump to "bring it on"

  • While Trump told “Meet the Press” he would not direct the FBI or attorney general to initiate jailing the Jan. 6 committee members, he said, “I think they’ll have to look at that”

Trump made the comments during an interview with NBC News' "Meet the Press." Cheney vice-chaired the bipartisan Jan. 6 committee tasked with investigating the attack that followed Trump’s refusal to concede the 2020 presidential election. 

One of two Republicans on the nine-person panel, Cheney reiterated the committee’s findings when she responded to Trump’s interview in a statement provided to The New York Times on Sunday.

“Here is the truth: Donald Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election and seize power,” she said. “He mobilized an angry mob and sent them to the United States Capitol, where they attacked police officers, invaded the building and halted the official counting of electoral votes.”

Cheney said there is “no conceivably appropriate factual or constitutional basis” for she or other committee members to be prosecuted.

While Trump told “Meet the Press” he would not direct the FBI or attorney general to prosecute the Jan. 6 committee members, he said, “I think they’ll have to look at that.”

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who also served on the committee, told Trump to “bring it on” in his latest Substack newsletter responding to Trump's interview. The president-elect’s threat of imprisonment is “nothing more than the desperate howl of a man who knows history will regard him with shame.” 

Trump also said in the interview that on his first day in office he plans to pardon the more than 900 people who pled guilty to participating in the Jan. 6 riot. 

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a Jan. 6 committee member who was elected to the Senate last month and is being sworn in Monday, wrote on X hours after Trump’s interview, “Prosecuting the truth-tellers. Pardoning perpetrators of political violence. That’s not what democracies do. That’s what dictators do.” 

President Joe Biden is reportedly considering preemptive pardons for Jan. 6 committee members.