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Liz Cheney hits out at Fox News live on air over ‘false flag’ reports on 6 January

‘It’s un-American to be spreading those kinds of lies, and they are lies’

Arpan Rai
Monday 08 November 2021 08:51 EST
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Liz Cheney hits out at Fox News live on air over 'false flag' reports on Jan 6

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Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney indirectly slammed Fox News host Tucker Carlson over his claims about the 6 January Capitol riots, stating that floating “false flag” conspiracy theories was dangerous and un-American.

On Sunday, Ms Cheney was asked on Fox News about claims that these riots were a “false flag operation” carried out by liberals in a deep state, setting up conservatives and Trump supporters.

The Wyoming congresswoman said that these were the kind of claims made by people who called the 9/11 terror attacks “an inside job” and alleged that there was no truth in them.

“It’s un-American to be spreading those kinds of lies, and they are lies,” Ms Cheney told the news host.

“We have an obligation that goes beyond partisanship and an obligation that we share, Democrats and Republicans together, to make sure that we understand every single piece of the facts about what happened that day and to make sure that the people who did it are held accountable,” she said.

To call it a false flag operation to spread those kinds of lies was really dangerous, she added.

This came shortly after the Republican lawmaker cornered Mr Carlson for his dubious claims that are being aired via his documentary series Patriot Purge.

In the new three-part documentary series, Carlson pushes the debunked conspiracy that the FBI incited the Capitol riot, the deadliest attack on the Washington state building in history. The documentary is a suspicious attempt to rewrite the events leading to the insurrection, and floats conspiracy theories about the incident.

It suggests that the violence by former President Donald Trump’s supporters was in fact led by left-wing activists. The series also alleges that the administration is using criminal cases to strip Mr Trump’s supporters of their constitutional rights. It also called those arrested for attacking the prestigious state building “political prisoners.”

The Republican lawmaker, who has faced the heat for appearing as the vice-chair of the House select committee probing the Capitol riots, had called out Fox News and Mr Carlson for airing lies about the violence.

“It appears that Fox News is giving Tucker Carlson a platform to spread the same type of lies that provoked violence on January 6. As Fox News knows, the election wasn’t stolen and January 6 was not a ‘false flag’ operation,” Ms Cheney said in a tweet last month.

She had again asked the television news show host about his allegations on that the 2020 elections, which declared Democrat leader Joe Biden as the next US president, as “stolen.”

“Re-upping this tweet so everyone can see the whole thing, including the part Tucker Carlson was afraid to show. Tucker: are you still falsely contending the voting machines were corrupted and the election was stolen?” Ms Cheney said in a tweet on 29 October.

The congresswoman said on Sunday that the success and future of the United States takes precedence over partisanship, defending her statements against President Trump.

“I think that we’ve got to have two strong parties in this country, and I think the only way the Republican Party can go forward in strength is if we reject the lie, if we reject what happened on January 6th, if we reject the efforts that President Trump made, frankly, to steal the election, and if we tell voters the truth, and if we present ourselves to voters based on substance,” Ms Cheney said.

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