Several Wyoming lawmakers strongly reprimanded the violent riots yesterday at the U.S. Capitol. One of the state’s Republican party leaders, lone house representative Liz Cheney, said on NBC that President Donald Trump incited the madness.
“What has happened today is unprecedented in American history,” she said. “And when you have violent mobs storming the House of Representatives and the floor of the United States Senate—and when you have the President saying that he loves those people—it is absolutely counter to the Constitution and the power with which the Republic was built.”
President Trump called out Cheney by name yesterday morning at a rally where he spread misinformation about the 2020 election in advance of Congress certifying the electoral results. He called upon the nation’s senators and representatives, as well as Vice President Mike Pence, to block the peaceful transition of power. His supporters online have called Cheney and those that agree with her Republicans in Name Only.
“The Liz Cheney’s of the world—we gotta get rid of them,” Trump said. “I also want to thank our 13 most courageous members of the U.S. Senate: Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Ron Johnson…Kelly Loeffler, Cynthia Lummis…”
Sen. Cynthia Lummis voted to certify the election results in Arizona, but opposed in Pennsylvania. (Courtesy Photo)
Lummis, the newly elected Senator in Wyoming, joined several senators in saying she would object to the election results earlier this week. She did, however, condemn the violence at the Capitol yesterday afternoon, despite previously spreading and enabling misinformation. The state’s other senator, John Barrasso, said this destruction has “no place in our republic.” He did not reject any election results, but Lummis ended up voting “aye” alongside six other senators to formally object to Pennsylvania’s vote count.
On the state level, Governor Mark Gordon wrote that he’s “heartbroken,” and that today’s actions dishonor the United States’ legacy. He also called upon the country to use the recent “Stop the Steal” protest at the Wyoming State Capitol as an example of peaceful expression. Wyoming’s Republican Party has not commented on today’s events directly. They instead posted a misleading video of what demonstrations looked like outside the White House, rather than at the Capitol where the pro-Trump extremists were.
Teton County’s GOP recently posted that they were “saddened and disappointed” by the civil unrest in Washington. On the Democrat’s side, State House Representative Mike Yin (D-Jackson) said a lot of today’s events occurred because Trump will not accept the truth that he lost the presidency. He drove to Cheyenne last night, and is scheduled to take his oath of office to the Constitution today.
The Wyoming Republican Party posted this on their Facebook page on January 6. It was their only post of the day. (Screenshot)
“And part of that constitution is fulfilling our obligations to law and order, where we respect the process that allows a bloodless transition of power between one party to another,” Yin said. “And that process is going on, except for the fact that we have one person that is inciting violence by undermining that process. And so we have to hold this person accountable. That’s all there is to it.”
On the other side, State Senator Jim Anderson (R-Casper) had a different point of view.
“They’re protesting, but they’re not tearing the town down or burning up everyone’s buildings,” he said. So why is there such a reaction for a conservative group having a demonstration?”
This statement is misleading, as there was violence inflicted today on the U.S. Capitol Building. In fact, the Capitol hasn’t been breached since the war of 1812, when the British burned it down. Some other Wyoming GOP lawmakers called yesterday’s events an act of “domestic terrorism.”
A lone man standing in the town square of Jackson, WY, holding an American flag, on January 6, 2021. (Will Walkey/KHOL)
