Liz Cheney Asks Red & Blue America To Unite Against Trump Fascism

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In a new speech connected to her receiving of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) rhetorically tore into Trump for the existential threat his actions around the end of his time in power posed to the United States.

“This sacred obligation to defend the peaceful transfer of power has been honored by every American president except one,” Cheney remarked. “The question for every one of us is in this time of testing, will we do our duty, will we defend our constitution, will we stand for truth, will we put duty to our oath above partisan politics?.. Or will we look away from danger, ignore the threat, embrace the lies and enable the liar?.. As we face a threat we have never faced before — a former president attempting to unravel our constitutional republic — at this moment we must all summon the courage to stand against that.” You’d think the response to these problems — joining together to stop Trump and his allies from continuing with threatening to topple democracy — would be obvious. And yet, most Republican leaders are sticking with Trump as he keeps lying that he won the last presidential election and pushes candidates for key races who’d possibly try and subvert the presidential election process if in power.

Cheney also talked about January 6 itself during her speech. She discussed “officers in black tactical gear sitting on the floor, leaning up against the statues, exhausted from the brutal hand to hand combat they had been engaged in for hours,” remarking: “These men and women had spent hours battling a violent mob — a mob of our fellow countrymen attempting to stop the transition of presidential power… It is no exaggeration to say that their courage likely saved our lives and our democracy.” It’s worth noting that Trump doesn’t appear to have ever reached out to the family of Brian Sicknick, a U.S. Capitol Police officer who died (of what were determined by medical authorities to be natural causes) shortly after helping defend the Capitol. In other words, even basic acknowledgements of police officers’ work at the Capitol and the meaning of it — something the (supposedly) pro-police Republicans could reasonably be expected to present — have been absent from Trump’s priorities list.

Going forward, the House committee investigating the Capitol riot — where Cheney is the vice chair — will be holding additional public hearings across June. Per reporting from the Guardian, the hearings — six of which are planned — will cover “how Donald Trump and some allies broke the law as they sought to overturn the 2020 election results,” per the committee’s understanding of riot-related events. That report does not state any specific individuals who might appear at the hearings, although the dispatch does say “most” of the witnesses “are being subpoenaed to appear at the hearings.” Recently, the committee privately spoke with longtime Trump ally Rudy Giuliani for what was reported as over nine hours. Panel members have also heard from people close to Trump like his daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner, both of whom were involved in the Trump political operation.