- Rep. Liz Cheney confirms she snapped at Rep. Jim Jordan during the January 6 insurrection.
- Cheney told Jordan, "get away from me, you fucking did this," as House members were evacuating.
- Cheney became a vocal Trump critic and is on the select committee probing January 6.
GOP Rep. Liz Cheney confirmed she told fellow Rep. Jim Jordan "get away from me, you fucking did this," as members evacuated the House chamber during the January 6, 2021 siege on the Capitol.
The New York Times' Michael Barbaro asked Cheney about the incident during an interview on "The Daily" podcast that aired Thursday, the first anniversary of the insurrection.
The interaction between Jordan and Cheney was reported in the book "I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year" by Washington Post reporters Phillip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, published in 2021.
"Can you confirm this story? Because I think it's important," Barbaro asked.
"It's true," Cheney said.
"I was in the aisle, on the aisle, and he came over to me and basically said, 'We need to get the ladies away from the aisle. And I basically said...I had watched for months since the election what was going on, and the lies that had been told to people," she said. "I think it was both that I certainly didn't need his help, and secondly, I thought clearly that the lie they had been spreading and telling to people had absolutely contributed to what we were living through at that moment."
Rucker and Leonnig wrote in the book that Cheney later relayed the moment to Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"That fucking guy Jim Jordan," Cheney told Milley, according to the book. "That son of a bitch … While these maniacs are going through the place, I'm standing in the aisle and he said 'We need to get the ladies away from the aisle. Let me help you.' I smacked his hand away and told him, 'Get away from me. You fucking did this.'"
After the insurrection, Cheney became a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump and voted to impeach him for inciting the insurrection, moves that cost her her position in House leadership and ostracized her from her party. She's now the vice-chairwoman of the House Select Committee investigating the insurrection.
Jordan, a staunch Trump supporter and ally in Congress, was among a key group of House Republican lawmakers organizing the GOP effort to object to the counting of electoral votes on January 6. The Select Committee has asked Jordan to provide information about his communications with Trump during the riots.
On Thursday, Cheney, along with her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, were the only Republicans seen on the House floor during a moment of silence and remembrance for the January 6 insurrection.