The House select committee's public hearings on the events of Jan. 6 are being conducted so that former President Donald Trump is "never able to run for presidential office again," Harriet Hageman, the GOP candidate trying to unseat Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee's vice-chair, said on Newsmax Friday.
"This is a politicization of the congressional process," Hageman, who has been endorsed by Trump against Cheney in Wyoming's midterm primary, told Newsmax's "National Report," while panning Cheney's opening statements.
"There is no new evidence that we haven't already heard, or that hasn't already been leaked," said Hageman. "[Rep. Adam] Kinzinger and Cheney were both appointed by Nancy Pelosi. There's no defense to any of this. The fact that they hired the gentleman from ABC to produce this, [it] demonstrates that it's all about messaging."
Meanwhile, voters back in Wyoming aren't focusing on the committee or its revelations, because they have more pressing issues at hand, said Hageman.
"I was in Casper yesterday at a meeting with over 100 people at a town hall, and I can assure you this isn't what they were focused on," she said. "They were focused on the fact that we now have inflation at 8.6% year over year. We've got a situation where gasoline in Wyoming is pushing $6. We know that we cannot produce food with $5 a gallon diesel, and it's higher than that right now.
"We're concerned about what the USDA recently did with determining that we either adopt the radical gender agenda or they're going to cut off school lunch-program funding."
Hageman added that the people she met with recognize Cheney for what she's doing, but still, "We know what happened on Jan. 6. What this committee is not going to do is disclose what happened in terms of the failure and security and those kinds of things."
Trump, in messages on his Truth Social platform, claimed that he offered up to 20,000 National Guard troops to be deployed in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi turned them down.
The former president also called the hearing a "political hoax" to distract from issues like inflation, and Hageman said he "hit the nail on the head."
"Liz Cheney is missing the mood of this country and understanding the significant issues," said Hageman. "We recognize that the purpose of this committee is to deflect attention from the failures of the Biden administration."
Wyoming Republicans also support Trump's "America First" agenda, said Hageman, but Cheney "does not, and never has."
"That's the real battle between Liz Cheney and the rest of the Republicans and Liz Cheney and Donald Trump," said Hageman. "Liz Cheney wants to make this all about Donald Trump. Donald Trump wasn't there that day, and that's one of the things that this committee is going to have to deal with."
She also accused the committee of overreach and noted that Trump has not been called to defend himself.
"It isn't for Liz Cheney to determine that without any defense whatsoever that Donald Trump is guilty," she said. "We did not send her to Washington, D.C., to be the judge and jury against Donald Trump."
Further, nobody will be called who will speak about irregularities with the 2020 election, said Hageman.
"What are they afraid of? Why don't they want the evidence of the defense presented?" she said. "This is an effort to destroy Donald Trump and influence the November elections. It's that simple."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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