In a recent campaign speech in Iowa, Donald Trump was seemingly trying to one-up Abraham Lincoln — yes, that Lincoln.
Trump insisted that negotiations could have averted what became the Civil War during Lincoln’s time as president. The ostensible point to which Trump eventually arrived was the idea that him continuing in power could have meant the current war between Russia and Ukraine was avoided.
In other words, the idea is just that Trump is some kind of genius in negotiations. Though he has obsessively claimed he’s equipped to either bring or have brought an end to hostilities led by Russian forces against Ukraine, he’s never outlined a particularly specific plan for actually getting there. And when put to the test while in office in high-stakes, high-profile discussions with the current dictator of North Korea, Trump fell short. Not much seems to have even stemmed from the interactions. North Korea’s weapons program remains generally intact.
On X — the platform formerly called Twitter, ex-GOP Congresswoman Liz Cheney questioned what factors in what became the Civil War could have been reasonably open to the negotiations Trump referenced. “Which part of the Civil War “could have been negotiated”? The slavery part? The secession part? Whether Lincoln should have preserved the Union? Question for members of the GOP—the party of Lincoln—who have endorsed Donald Trump: How can you possibly defend this?” Cheney asked.
She also appeared the following morning on the CBS program “Face The Nation,” where she condemned the history of election denial or threats of subversion seen with Republicans exemplified by current Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Congressman. “Mike’s position, which people really need to think about because it’s so chilling, is that somehow as a member of Congress, he has the right to ignore the rulings of those courts, to assert absent any finding of fact that somehow he feels that something that happened was unconstitutional, and therefore, that he can throw out the votes of millions of Americans,” Cheney said Sunday.
Which part of the Civil War “could have been negotiated”? The slavery part? The secession part? Whether Lincoln should have preserved the Union? Question for members of the GOP—the party of Lincoln—who have endorsed Donald Trump: How can you possibly defend this? https://t.co/83N1RFze0w
— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) January 6, 2024
