Condoleezza Rice says Jan. 6 was her 'worst day since' 9/11, she cried watching the day unfold

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Condoleezza Rice delivers keynote address at the Alfred E. Smith memorial foundation dinner.

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."

Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. secretary of state, and Mike Pompeo, U.S. secretary of state, right, listen during an event hosted by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in Stanford, California, U.S., on Monday, Jan. 13, 2020. Photographer: John G. Mabanglo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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.

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"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."

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., speaks during a business meeting of the Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021. (Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Pebble Beach, California. (Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)

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.

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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.