Former Acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates expressed support for Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) after the Republican party voted to oust the Wyoming representative from her conference chair responsibilities Wednesday.
“I never thought that I’d be saying, ‘Yeah, go Liz Cheney,’ but I am,” Yates said during the latest episode of David Axelrod’s podcast, released Thursday.
Yates also stated on the episode of “The Axe Files with David Axelrod” she believes it is “sad commentary” that people are having to announce support for Cheney for “telling the truth.”
“And again, isn’t it a sad commentary that we’re cheering her on for simply telling the truth and for refusing to be silent when others are not?,” Yates told CNN commentator Axelrod. “She is being punished for telling the truth. And I certainly never thought our country would come to that.”
Yates also discussed the Capitol riot which occurred January 6, saying she believed it was a “violent insurrection” she did not anticipate.
“I think all of us watched with horror that day at what was happening at our nation’s Capitol with also a feeling of, okay, this has to be it,” Yates said. “Regardless of where one is on the political spectrum, surely we can all agree that this can never happen again… that this is going at the very bedrock of our democracy.”
“And it seemed like that lasted for maybe a week or so,” Yates added. “Maybe a little bit longer than that. And then even there it is dissipated now. We can’t even unify around that.”
Yates was fired by Trump in 2017 after she refused to defend his executive order to restrict immigration and refugees from several countries in the Middle East.
Cheney, one of ten House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump on the charge of inciting a riot on January 6, has consistently held the position the “2020 presidential election was not stolen” and insisted those who believe it was are “turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.”
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