In a newly released episode of The Axe Files podcast, which is hosted by longtime political operative David Axelrod, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) condemned rhetoric from former President Donald Trump as on par with what’s been put out by the Chinese Communist Party. Specifically, she described Trump’s false allegation that the U.S. electoral system has essentially failed as ominously comparable to the Communists’ anti-democracy propaganda. Interestingly, other right-wingers have already (falsely) alleged some kind of alignment with Chinese Communist principles on the part of Democrats, but Cheney says that, in this instance, it’s Republicans maintaining that dangerous rhetorical connection.
Cheney pointedly commented as follows:
‘When you listen to Donald Trump talk now, when you hear the language he’s using now, it is essentially the same things that the Chinese Communist Party, for example, says about the United States and our democracy… When he says that our system doesn’t work… when he suggests that it’s, you know, incapable of conveying the will of the people, you know, that somehow it’s failed — those are the same things that the Chinese government says about us… It’s very dangerous and damaging… and it’s not true.’
There has never at any point been any documented legitimacy to Trump’s bombastic claims that last year’s presidential election was somehow rigged for Biden, but that lack of evidence hasn’t stopped him. He continues to insist that the U.S. electoral system is overrun by individuals working on some sort of secret rigging scheme instead of meaningfully transmitting what Americans desire for their governance.
Notably, Trump’s ideal of “democracy” appears to entail the overt silencing of his political opponents. After the recent announcement from New York state Attorney General Letitia James that her office was now conducting a criminal investigation of the Trump family business, Trump complained (referring to James) that “[if] you can run for a prosecutor’s office pledging to take out your enemies, and be elected to that job by partisan voters who wish to enact political retribution, then we are no longer a free constitutional democracy.” However, the opportunity for voters to join together and, through their ballots, enact meaningful pushback against a certain governmental official (like Trump) is one of the key features of democracy!
