Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) lashed out at Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) on Sunday after the New York lawmaker referred to Jan. 6 rioters as "hostages."
While speaking to CBS host Margaret Brennan on Sunday, Cheney brought up
remarks Stefanik made on NBC's Meet the Press earlier in the morning.
"Look, you've had two members of Republican leadership in the House on television this morning," Cheney explained. "You've had Mike [Johnson] on, again, claiming that he has the right individually to decide that he's going to throw out millions of votes and ignore the rulings of the courts."
"You've had Elise Stefanik on this morning talking about the J6 hostages," she noted. "I mean, you don't have to take my word for the fact that you can't count on these elected Republicans to defend the Constitution."
Brennan quoted Stefanik: "I have concerns about the treatment of the January 6th hostages."
"Hostages is a very specific word," the CBS host observed. "And there are well over 1,200 people in the U.S. legal system going through legal proceedings right now for their role in the attack that day. That word she used is exactly the word that Donald Trump uses."
"And that's why she's using it," Cheney pointed out. "And it's outrageous, and it's disgusting."
"If you go and you look at what individuals have been convicted for who are incarcerated, you'll find, you know, extensively these are people who were involved in violence against police officers in the assault on the Capitol," she added. "And it is really it's disgraceful for Donald Trump to be saying what he's saying. And then for those who are attempting to enable him or attempting to further their own political careers to repeat it. It's a disgrace."