Former Wyoming GOP Rep. Liz Cheney called House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) a “total crackpot” in a post to X on Tuesday in response to Stefanik’s criticism of Cheney’s role in the Jan. 6 committee.
After reports surfaced Monday that files related to the Jan. 6 events had been mysteriously deleted or encrypted before Republicans took control of the House in 2022, Stefanik railed against the Jan. 6 committee, which Cheney was the vice chairwoman of at the time.
“As I said from day one, Nancy Pelosi’s sham January 6th Committee was illegitimate and unconstitutional. It should come as a surprise to no one that Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney’s fake committee illegally deleted records of their sham investigation and obstructed justice,” Stefanik wrote in a post to X Tuesday. “The American people deserve full transparency.”
Cheney returned fire when she responded to Stefanik’s post and linked to a statement that the New York congresswoman made on Jan. 6, 2021, condemning the Capitol riots.
“This is what @EliseStefanik said, in a rare moment of honesty, about the January 6 attack on our Capitol,” Cheney wrote. “One day she will have to explain how and why she morphed into a total crackpot. History, and our children, deserve to know.”
In her previous statement, Stefanik referred to the riots as “a truly tragic day for America.” Stefanik, who has been a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump and has been floated as a possible vice presidential candidate for the GOP front-runner, replaced Cheney as conference chairwoman after she was ousted from the position when she voted to impeach Trump for inciting the Capitol riots.
The following year, Stefanik released a statement ahead of the one-year anniversary of Jan. 6, calling for transparency and emphasizing the Capitol’s lack of security that day.
“It is unacceptable that one year later the American people still do not have answers as to why the Capitol was left so vulnerable and how to ensure it never happens again,” Stefanik wrote in the statement.
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In a statement to the Hill, a spokesperson for Stefanik ignored Cheney’s comments toward the congresswoman.
“Liz Cheney’s only remaining relevance is that she will soon have to answer for her role in deleting and hiding evidence from the investigation into the sham January 6 Select Committee,” the spokesperson said.