On Wednesday morning, House Republicans voted to remove Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) from her position in party leadership after she consistently refused to go along with the lie from former President Donald Trump and some of his top allies that the 2020 presidential election was somehow rigged for Biden. Cindy McCain — the widow of the late public figure John McCain — spoke out in defense of Cheney on Wednesday, as Republicans and the nation at large continued to grapple with the Trump impact.
Cindy lauded Cheney for having chosen “truth over lies.” As McCain put it on Twitter:
‘Today, [Liz Cheney] chose truth over lies. She chose country over party. She chose a cause greater than herself. She chose democracy. Thank you, Liz, for your courage.’
Today, @RepLizCheney chose truth over lies. She chose country over party. She chose a cause greater than herself. She chose democracy. Thank you, Liz, for your courage.
— Cindy McCain (@cindymccain) May 12, 2021
Cindy herself hasn’t exactly been at ease with the Trump-led direction of the GOP. Ahead of the 2020 presidential election, she endorsed Biden — who went on to win her home state of Arizona in the first victory in the state for a Democratic presidential candidate since the 1990s. At present, Arizona Republicans are leading a recount of presidential election votes in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, and Cindy has pointedly denounced that effort as “ludicrous.”
There is no legitimate evidence of any remaining issues that recounts and other election security efforts have failed to already address. In Arizona, the Republicans running the recount are fueling their effort with conspiracies — workers have, for instance, looked for bamboo fibers on the basis of the utterly bonkers theory that fraudulent ballots were shipped in from Asia. Workers have also examined ballots under UV light on the basis of the theory that watermarks may have been secretly placed on legitimate ballots to distinguish them from supposed forgeries. The watermarks, conspiracy theorists claim, were placed there by the Trump team — but federal authorities, generally speaking, don’t even handle the printing of ballots.
Meanwhile, Cheney has shown no indication of intending to let up with her own criticism of the lies from Trump and others about the integrity of the 2020 election. Notably, she told reporters after the vote to remove her from party leadership among House Republicans that she “will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office.”
