Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) was in New Hampshire this week, where she presented the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications’ First Amendment Award, and while there, she outlined the seriousness of the threats posed by former President Donald Trump’s continued lies about the election and by Republican leaders’ capitulation to those lies. As Cheney put it, certain public figures “have made themselves willing hostages” to Trump as he wreaks havoc. Overcoming partisanship is, however, an “obligation” when faced with a danger such as the one inherent in Trump’s remarks and behavior, she added.
As Cheney put it:
‘We are also confronting a domestic threat that we have never faced before: a former president who’s attempting to unravel the foundations of our Constitutional Republic, aided by political leaders who have made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man.’
Cheney subsequently recounted how Trump had reportedly said at a fundraising dinner put on by House Republicans that the real “insurrection” was on Election Day, when he claims that a nationwide election-rigging scheme was in action to secure Biden’s win. The violence on January 6, Trump says, was merely a “protest.” He’s made a similar argument in a public statement — and to be clear, this argument not just glosses over but justifies travesties like the vicious assaults on scores of law enforcement personnel that were recorded at the Capitol in January. Cheney added as follows:
‘Political leaders who sit silent in the face of these false and dangerous claims are aiding a former president who is at war with the rule of law and the Constitution. When our Constitutional order is threatened, as it is now, rising above partisanship is not simply an aspiration. It is an obligation — an obligation of every one of us.’
Cheney then laid out how — no matter claims to the contrary from Trump and his allies — she’s a committed conservative. As she put it:
‘I love my party. I love its history; I love its principles. But I love my country more. I know this nation needs a Republican Party that is based on truth, one that puts forward our ideals and our policies based on substance. One that is willing to reject the former president’s lies. One that is willing to tell the truth: that millions of Americans have been tragically misled by former President Trump, who continues to this day to use language that he knows provoked violence on January 6.’
It’s unclear whether any Republican leaders have any substantive interest in the kind of distance from Trump to which Cheney pointed. She herself used to be a Republican Party leader — but as she established her opposition to Trump’s lies, House Republicans voted her out of her position as the third-ranking member in the House GOP conference. Watch her remarks below:
.@RepLizCheney: "We are also confronting a domestic threat that we have never faced before; a former president who's attempting to unravel the foundations of our Constitutional Republic…" pic.twitter.com/dqYSwaP4RH
— CSPAN (@cspan) November 9, 2021
