During an interview that aired this Sunday as part of ABC’s This Week, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) addressed some of the lingering issues within the GOP as she now faces an impending departure from Congress after recently losing her primary in the race for her seat.
“I think that as a nation, whether we’re Republicans, or Democrats, or independents, we all have to reject that,” Cheney told journalist Jonathan Karl of Trump’s approach. “And we can agree that there are certain issues we’re never going to agree on politically, but we have to come together across those party lines in order to protect ourselves against that kind of threat.”
Asked about Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Cheney added: “When you look at somebody like Josh Hawley or somebody like Ted Cruz — both of whom know better, both of whom know exactly what the role of Congress is in terms of our Constitutional obligations with respect to presidential elections, and yet both of whom took steps that fundamentally threatened the Constitutional order and structure in the aftermath of the last election, in my view, they both have made themselves unfit for future office.” Cheney also addressed Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, noting his support for election deniers. “Either you fundamentally believe in and will support our Constitutional structure, or you don’t,” Cheney added. Karl asked Cheney about those three prominent Republicans in the context of one potentially ending up as the GOP presidential pick in 2024. If Trump isn’t in the race for whatever reason, polling suggests DeSantis holds the best shot. Watch below:
GOP Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz have “made themselves unfit for future office,” Rep. Liz Cheney tells @jonkarl.
“Both of whom took steps that fundamentally threatened the constitutional order and structure in the aftermath of the last election.” https://t.co/WlcxJ7QWDh pic.twitter.com/jhb113MNpg
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 21, 2022
After losing her primary to Trump endorsement-recipient Harriet Hageman, Cheney now says she’ll work against election deniers running for office. “I’m going to be very focused on working to ensure that we do everything we can not to elect election deniers, and I’m going to work against those people. I’m going to work to support their opponents,” she explained. “I think it matters that much.” Trump, as could be expected, rushed to tout the news of Cheney’s defeat, and the former president sought to characterize the election results as somehow a referendum on the House committee investigating the Capitol riot, where she’s vice chair. In reality, of course, Wyoming is just one state, and recent Fox polling found 65 percent of overall respondents indicated they believed it was important for the Justice Department and Congress to investigate January 6. Roughly half that amount indicated the opposite position.
Meanwhile, Cheney also pushed back during her ABC interview on antagonism from fellow Republicans against FBI personnel after the agency’s recent raid of Trump’s southern Florida property known as Mar-a-Lago, and she also insisted that sticking with Trump’s cult of personality and abandoning political principles drawn from the Constitution threatens GOP chances of winning elections. “We have no chance at winning elections if we are in a position where our party has abandoned principle and abandoned value and abandoned fundamental fidelity to the Constitution in order to embrace a cult of personality,” Cheney said. Watch more of her remarks below:
“We have no chance at winning elections if we are in a position where our party has abandoned principle and abandoned value and abandoned fundamental fidelity of the Constitution in order to embrace a cult of personality,” GOP Rep. Cheney tells @jonkarl. https://t.co/Gh6UuY2X72 pic.twitter.com/4c7CacnZUm
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) August 21, 2022
