Liz Cheney doesn't mince words about Donald Trump. She calls the former president a “liar,” a “fraud,” and a potential “tyrant” who, if re-elected, could “destroy the Constitution and our guarantees of free speech and the rule of law.” .
Cheney delivered these rhetorical roundhouse punches in a speech at the Connecticut Forum in Hartford last week. The words of the man who was ousted as chairman of the House Republican Conference were even more powerful. As he listened to the repeated roars of approval from the crowd of nearly 3,000 people, he couldn't help but wonder if Cheney might become an underrated X-factor in the 2024 election.
“We will do our best to ensure that [Trump] “I will never go near the Oval Office again,” Cheney vowed. She said candidly that defeating President Trump means reelecting President Biden and rejecting third-party candidates. Although she disagrees with Biden on many policy issues, she said a Biden victory in November is needed to save the country from a potential dictatorship.
If Trump wins, Cheney said, “We will be living in an unrecognizable country, and the stakes are so grave that, for the first time in my life, I will commit myself wholeheartedly to a Republican presidential nominee.'' It will happen,” he explained. president. ” Sometimes the warnings about President Trump's authoritarian ambitions feel overblown. But in Cheney's deeply personal voice, they ring true.
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What changes will Cheney's passionate opposition bring about? It's hard to say, given that President Trump has upended traditional political alignment. But perhaps she speaks for the many Republicans (not to mention independents) who are resisting the Trump cult. She is an anti-abortion, pro-gun, anti-tax conservative. But she believes those policy differences are more important in November than defending the Constitution or stopping Trump.
Cheney said she has not yet decided whether it makes sense to formally endorse Biden. But she vowed to work until Election Day to “educate” Americans about how dangerous Trump is. As some Democrats are trying to push Biden to the left, Cheney is likely to win in the middle, where polls show Trump to be vulnerable, as in many elections. It reminded us that we will win this election as a centrist.
I was moderating a conversation in Connecticut and asked Cheney what she thought Biden would have done in the State of the Union address. She responded that although she and Biden have many policy differences, he has “done a good job” serving the country. Her only advice to the Biden campaign was to avoid “anything really extreme” that could limit their ability to win an Electoral College majority.
Cheney was so afraid of Trump and his rabid support base that he fiercely despised the Republicans who would become Trump's “collaborators,” “enablers,” and “accomplices.” Among Congressional Republicans, she argued, “the number of people who believe his lies is very small.” “They are enabling this danger and they know it is dangerous.”
Cheney paid a huge price for telling the truth. She was ousted from House leadership after defying Trump and lost re-election by MAGA voters in Wyoming. President Trump went on a rant on Truth Social last Sunday, saying “she should go to jail” for co-leading the House Select Committee's investigation into the January 6, 2021, riot. But despite Cheney's threats against herself and her family, she persists.
What Cheney can do with this campaign, above all, is reinvigorate the nation's memory about what happened on January 6th. She made the minute-by-minute visceral statement in her new book, Oath and Honor, and on stage in Hartford. A record of the day President Trump attempted a “coup” to prevent the certification of his election loss. She described how lawmakers in the besieged chamber fumbled with gas masks, took shelter behind bulletproof chairs at their desks, and ultimately tried to escape out of reach of the pursuing mob. .
America needs to remember this fear before Election Day. The most powerful evidence has already been secretly presented to a grand jury by the Republicans most familiar with Trump's actions, including former Vice President Mike Pence and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
That's why it's so important that the Supreme Court immediately rejects President Trump's request for immunity and allows the trial to begin on January 6th before the election — so the public can hear Pence and others in open court. Testimony will be heard. I can't imagine President Trump surviving that public rebuke.
Cheney remains focused on what's at stake in this election. America is “sleepwalking toward dictatorship,” she warned. In nearly every speech she makes, Trump has vowed to defy Congress, resist the courts, and work to break down the “checks and balances” that distribute power and protect democracy in our system. . She hopes her use of the word “dictatorship” overstates things, but if Trump wins, we'll be living in a different country. That's the message Biden needs to take home, and Cheney could be a strong, full-throated ally.
Looking at Cheney reminds us that courage is important in politics. She described a fellow Republican who told her that she wanted to vote to impeach President Trump, but that she was worried about herself and her family. Cowardice is common in politics. Bravery is rare. Cheney sounds like someone who is afraid of nothing except failing to meet his obligations to the Constitution.