OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk is tearing into former House Republican Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger as well as Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff and other lawmakers that sat on the House Committee Investigating the Capitol Riots on January 6th.
Musk responded to a tweet from State Freedom Caucus Network Communications Director Greg Price, who shared information from Fox News host Tucker Carlson. On Monday night, Carlson shared footage from Jan. 6 that provided new information about protesters who were walking around the U.S. Capitol that day.
Musk responded to Price’s tweet by accusing the aforementioned lawmakers of “misleading the public” and withholding evidence.
“Besides misleading the public, they withheld evidence for partisan political reasons that sent people to prison for far more serious crimes than they committed. That is deeply wrong, legally and morally,” Musk tweeted.
Besides misleading the public, they withheld evidence for partisan political reasons that sent people to prison for far more serious crimes than they committed.
That is deeply wrong, legally and morally.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 7, 2023
On Monday night, Carlson shared a few clips from the nearly 40,000 hours of new footage from the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, which was given to him by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Carlson released never-before-seen clips, which appeared to contrast some of the committee’s final report and inherent claims.
Liz Cheney, in particular, spent a great deal of her time on the committee attacking former President Donald Trump and blaming him for the riots on Jan. 6, 2021.
Some believe that Cheney, who suffered a brutal defeat in her primary last August and has officially left office, used her seat on the committee to jumpstart a 2024 presidential run.
CNN published a recent piece detailing “Republicans considering 2024 presidential run,” which included a profile on Cheney.
“Liz Cheney: The former Wyoming congresswoman who emerged as the foremost GOP critic of Trump’s lies about widespread election fraud lost her House seat to a Trump-backed primary challenger. She launched a political action committee last year and made clear she intends to try to purge the GOP of Trump’s influence. But what that means in the context of a potential 2024 bid is not yet clear,” the outlet noted.
For her part, Cheney has dropped several clues that she may run.
During a recent interview, Cheney did not rule out running for president in 2024: “At this point, I have not made a decision about 2024. I am really very focused on the substance of what we have to do on the select committee, very focused on the work that I have to do to represent the people of Wyoming, and I’ll make a decision about 2024 down the road,” Cheney said.
While speaking at The Texas Tribune Festival late last year, she threatened to leave the Republican Party if Donald Trump is the 2024 nominee.
“I’m going to make sure Donald Trump, I’m going to do everything I can to make sure he is not the nominee. And if he is the nominee, I won’t be a Republican,” she said.
She also gave an interesting answer when asked if she would run for president in 2024.
“It’s not about me or making a decision about what I’m going to do,” she said. “I certainly will do whatever it takes to make sure Donald Trump isn’t anywhere close to the Oval Office.”
Cheney also recently headlined the American Enterprise Institute’s annual Constitution Day Lecture and invoked Abraham Lincoln’s “call for a patriotism” grounded in “reverence to the Constitution” and how it’s “essential in protecting our inheritance of liberty, and why we must resist the rise of a mobocratic spirit.”
This is not a coincidence.
Cheney teased a 2024 run when she noted that Abraham Lincoln lost elections for the House and Senate “before he won the most important election of all” by winning the presidency.
She told the TODAY Show she was “thinking about” joining the 2024 Republican presidential race.
“That’s a decision that I’m going to make in the coming months, and I’m not going to make any announcements here this morning. But it is something that I am thinking about, and I’ll make a decision in the coming months,” Cheney responded when asked if she had considered a White House bid.
