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Gingrich Threatens Jan. 6 Committee Will Be Jailed; Cheney Fires Back

Published on in News/Liz Cheney
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By Ellen Fike, Cowboy State Daily

U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney criticized former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Sunday after Gingrich predicted that members of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, invasion of the Capitol would be jailed for their actions.

Cheney spoke out against the elder legislator on Twitter Sunday, retweeting the clip from his interview on Fox News when he suggested members of the committee could face criminal charges.

“A former Speaker of the House is threatening jail time for members of Congress who are investigating the violent January 6 attack on our Capitol and our Constitution,” Cheney said. “This is what it looks like when the rule of law unravels.” 

Gingrich’s comments to Fox News on Sunday host Maria Baritromo that the members of the committee, most of them Democrats, could see retribution if the Republicans again hold a majority in Congress.

“I think when you have a Republican Congress, this is all going to come crashing down,” Gingrich said. “And the wolves are going to find out that they’re now sheep and they’re the ones who are going to face a real risk of jail for the kinds of laws they’re breaking.”

“​It’s basically a lynch mob and unfortunately the attorney general of the United States has joined the lynch mob and is totally misusing the FBI​,” Gingrich added. ​​

Cheney and U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Illinois, are the only two Republicans serving on the committee, and Kinzinger has announced he will not seek re-election.

In reaction to Gingrich’s appearance, Kinzinger posted a clip from the movie “Billy Madison” where late comedian Chris Farley plays an angry school bus driver.

Cheney faces multiple challengers in the Republican congressional primary this August, including state Sen. Anthony Bouchard and Cheyenne attorney Harriet Hageman, who has been endorsed in the race by former President Donald Trump.

Cheney has not announced whether she will seek re-election.

Over the last year, Cheney has become an outspoken critic of Trump, voting to impeach him on allegations he incited the riot that saw the Capitol invaded. Prior to that, her voting record aligned with Trump more than 90% of the time.

Cheney was removed from her seat as House Conference chair following her impeachment vote and has faced severe criticism in Wyoming for the vote and subsequent criticism of Trump and the way he handled the Capitol attack.

Five people died as a result of the attack.

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Cheney, Fox News Hosts Locked In Battle Over Released Texts

Published on in News/Liz Cheney
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By Ellen Fike, Cowboy State Daily

U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney and two Fox News hosts are sparring over the text messages the latter sent to former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff regarding the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Fox hosts Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity both commented on Cheney’s release of texts they made to Mark Meadows during and immediately after the invasion of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6

Cheney is the the vice chair of the House select committee investigating the attack and during a committee meeting Monday, she read aloud from several texts sent to Meadows. The committee met as members advanced contempt of Congress charges against Meadows.

According to Cheney’s reading, Ingraham told Meadows that Trump was destroying his legacy by not telling the protestors to leave.

“Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home,” Ingraham texted Meadows that day. “This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy.”

Cheney also read from a text sent to Meadows by Sean Hannity which asked if Trump could make a statement and tell the rioters to go home.

On Tuesday, Hannity said Cheney’s unveiling of the texts showed she was attempting to smear him.

“Surprise, surprise, surprise: I said to Mark Meadows the exact same thing I was saying live on the radio at that time and on TV that night on Jan. 6 and well beyond Jan. 6,” he said. “By the way, where is the outrage in the media over my private text messages being released again publicly? Do we believe in privacy in this country? Apparently not.”

Hannity added that he was an honest and straightforward person.

“Liz, let’s release your phone records and texts, and your family discussing Donald Trump, considering you’re so free to release everybody else’s,” Hannity said. “You’re a rock star now to the media mob, temporarily. They’ll turn on you again.”

Ingraham said that the media was trying to spin her message to Meadows and make her look like a liar.

“Of course, the regime media was somehow trying to twist this message to try to tar me as a liar [and] hypocrite, who privately sounded the alarm on Jan. 6, but publicly downplayed it,” she said.

Trump himself questioned Cheney’s willingness to work with the “radical left” after they tried to “destroy” her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, when he was in office.

“Isn’t it ironic that Liz Cheney is supporting the same people, Radical Left Democrats, that did everything possible to destroy her father when he was Vice President, and after? When they are finished using ‘Liz,’ they will destroy her also. This is all happening as her poll numbers have reached an all-time low in the Great State of Wyoming!” Trump said this week.

Cheney said Wednesday that Ingraham and Hannity were now reconfirming their stances about the Capitol attack being unjustified.

“Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham have now reconfirmed their views that the violence on January 6th was unjustified and unacceptable,” she wrote on Twitter Wednesday.

Cheney said Monday that the committee worked with Meadows’ legal counsel for weeks to get him to testify, but right before the scheduled hearing, Meadows reneged on the deal. She added that the contempt of Congress charge stems from his refusal to testify about the text messages he received on Jan. 6.

Meadows received numerous text messages from members of Congress, the press (including the Fox News hosts) and Trump’s own family, urging him to persuade Trump to take action and call off the rioters.

“These text messages leave no doubt that the White House knew exactly what was happening here at the Capitol,” Cheney said during the meeting.

Trump, an avid Twitter user at the time, took a significantly long time to address the rioters, many of whom were his supporters. When he did, it was described by some as a mild call for peace and a request for rioters to go home.

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Cheney Camp Blasts Hageman For “Reckless” Spread of Misinformation About Vax Bill

Published on in News/Liz Cheney
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By Ellen Fike, Cowboy State Daily

U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney’s office blasted fellow Republican and congressional candidate Harriet Hageman on Thursday, claiming she was falsely spreading misinformation about Cheney’s vote on a bill Hageman said would let the government track private citizens’ vaccination statuses.

The bill — The Immunization Infrastructure Modernization Act — would provide funds to improve existing immunization information systems in place in most states and improve the sharing of information.

Hageman said the bill represents a “massive intrusion into most basic personal privacy” and criticized Cheney’s support.

But Cheney spokesman Jeremy Adler said the bill actually takes steps to safeguard people’s private information.

Adler called Hageman’s accusation “reckless,” noting the bill was supported by 80 Republicans in the House, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California) — actually safeguards peoples’ information.

“It’s dangerous, reckless, and irresponsible for the Hageman campaign to be spreading misinformation like this,” Adler told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday.

Hageman, in a release distributed on Thursday, labeled the legislation was “Orwellian”.

“This is straight out of George Orwell, and the fact that Liz Cheney thinks the federal government has the right to know your personal medical information to help Joe Biden enforce his unconstitutional mandates shows you that she has lost her mind,” Hageman said.

“Taking the vaccine is a personal decision, and it is not business of the government,” she said. “In the United States, we value personal privacy, and we don’t allow the federal government to identify and harass people over medical decisions they make for themselves,” she said.

Adler disputed Hageman’s statements and pointed out the bill provides money for an existing network and does not collect personal identifiable information.

“Each state system has their own standards, and all are confidential,” Adler said. “This [provides] an extra layer of protection to ensure they remain confidential and that any new state system is confidential as well.”

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Cheney Introduces Bill To Pay Wyoming For Money Lost Due to Biden’s Oil/Gas Moratorium

Published on in Energy/News/Liz Cheney
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By Ellen Fike, Cowboy State Daily

U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney introduced legislation this week that would compensate Wyoming and other states for millions of dollars in revenue they lost because of President Joe Biden’s oil and gas leasing moratorium enacted earlier this year.

The Payment In Lieu of Lost Resources (PILLR) Act would compensate states for the property rentals, bonuses, royalties and severance taxes lost as a result of a halt on the lease of federal land for energy development issued by the federal government.

“The executive orders signed by President Biden on his first day in office targeting the energy industry were misguided,” Cheney said this week about the bill.

“Not only did these unfair mandates negatively impact the work of energy producers in Wyoming, but they cost our state a key source of revenue that we depend on to educate our kids, support our first responders, and provide for other critical needs,” she said.

“While the best course of action would be to allow new energy leases and permits to move forward unimpeded, the bill I’ve introduced will ensure that citizens in Wyoming and other states that rely on money generated by the energy industry are compensated the full amount of the revenue lost so they can continue to meet the needs of their citizens, despite the Biden Administration’s thoughtless and political agenda,” she continued.

The bill could bring in $100 million in revenue for Wyoming, according to an estimate from University of Wyoming economics professor Dr. Timothy Considine.

Gov. Mark Gordon said he supports the bill.

“Since the inception of the Biden moratorium on federal oil and gas lease sales, I have emphasized that this bad idea would disproportionately affect western states like Wyoming,” Gordon said this week.

“Even though the BLM has begun the scoping process for the lost sales scheduled for the first two quarters of the year, Wyoming and our local counties will not receive any lease bonus bids this calendar year, a loss of millions of dollars. Congresswoman Cheney’s bill is a great start in restoring Wyoming’s lost revenue,” the governor said.

Jim Willox, the chairman of the Wyoming County Commissioners Association, also praised Cheney for her work on this legislation.

“The Wyoming County Commissioners Association applauds Congresswoman Cheney’s efforts to see that states and counties continue to receive royalty payments despite the Biden Administration’s attempt to halt oil and gas leasing on public lands,” Willox said.

“Wyoming relies on these funds to provide essential services, including education, libraries, courthouses and judicial systems, public health and senior centers, safe roads and more. This bill ensures that Wyoming’s counties and communities do not suffer as a result of this Administration’s leasing ban,” he said.

A study from the American Petroleum Institute issued in 2020 estimated that $641 million in revenue would be at risk for the State of Wyoming if a federal leasing and development ban were enacted.

A report released last week by the administration of President Joe Biden recommended an overhaul of the system used to lease parcels of federal land for oil and gas drilling to limit areas available for development and increase the cost for companies to drill on public lands and waters, according to NPR.

The report by the Interior Department stopped short of recommending an end to oil and gas leasing on public lands, but officials told NPR it would lead to a more responsible leasing process that provides a better return to U.S. taxpayers.

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