Post Content
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that she cried in reaction to Jan. 6, which she described as her worst day since Sept. 11.
“Let me tell you what I think about Jan. 6, – just tell you flat out,” she said during the Aspen Security Forum in Washington, D.C. “First of all, my worst day since Sept. 11. I cried watching it. I thought to myself, ‘I study countries that do this. I don’t live in one.'”
Rice, who served as national security adviser on 9/11, described the events on Jan. 6 as “an offense to democratic institutions, an offense to democracy, a stain on our democracy.”
She went on to praise Congress and former Vice President Mike Pence for voting to certify the 2020 election results after the riots that rocked Capitol Hill.
JAN. 6 COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS BANNON FACE CRIMINAL CONTEMPT FOR DEFYING SUBPOENA
“Mike Pence did his constitutional duty and declared that he himself had been defeated along with Donald Trump,” Rice said.
She added that she watched courts and local officials “refuse to cast doubt on a duly constituted election that elected Joe Biden. And I thought to myself – if you get your institutions right, you can survive a lot.”
Rice’s comments came after months of investigation into the events that occurred that day. In Congress, a group of House lawmakers is currently pursuing the issue through a controversial committee that is vice-chaired by Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.
Rice said on Wednesday that she would have preferred that the inquiry into Jan. 6 looked “more like the 9/11 inquiry, which I thought had a lot of bipartisan trust and support.”
The committee has been decried as partisan as only two House Republicans voted in favor of it.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The former secretary of state said she nonetheless “admire[d] Liz Cheney” and that she didn’t think there was an argument for not testifying. Her comments might have been a veiled jab at former White House adviser Steve Bannon, whom the Jan. 6 committee condemned for refusing to testify.
Bannon’s attorney argued that the former Trump adviser was “not in defiance” of the committee’s subpoena since former President Trump had invoked executive privilege. That’s set to be discussed during a hearing scheduled for Thursday.
Sam Dorman is a reporter with Fox News. Follow him on Twitter @DormanInDC or at facebook.com/SamDormanFoxNews