Representative Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican and vice chairman of the House of Representatives committee investigating the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, described former President Donald J. Trump categorically on Wednesday night as a threat to the republic, which “went to war with the rule of law.”
“At the moment, we are facing an internal threat that we have never faced before – and this is a former president who is trying to unravel the foundations of our constitutional republic,” Ms Cheney said in a speech at Ronald’s presidential library. Reagan in Simi Valley, California, where her address was greeted with a standing ovation.
“He is backed by Republican leaders and elected officials who have become hostages of this dangerous and irrational man,” she said, adding, “Even after everything we’ve seen, they allow his lies.”
Ms Cheney is speaking at a time when Mr Trump is potentially on the verge of announcing a presidential campaign for 2024, according to his advisers, which raises the prospect of a leading candidate in the early elections, who also faces active civil and criminal investigations. . Mr Trump also continues to repeat lies about his loss in the 2020 election, claiming that the contest was “stolen” from him.
“As the full picture appeared before the committee on January 6, it became clear that the efforts that Donald Trump observed and participated in were even more chilling and threatening than we could have imagined,” Ms. Cheney said. .
Republicans, she said at another point, “have to choose” because “they can’t be both loyal to Donald Trump and loyal to the Constitution.”
It was a startling comment from the daughter of a former Republican vice president, Dick Cheney, against the current Republican leader, even when he is out of office. Ms. Cheney was a supporter of Mr. Trump until shortly after the 2020 election, when she criticized him for his baseless allegations of fraud.
In May 2021, she said she regretted voting for him the previous year.
Ms. Cheney, who was forced to step down as Republican No. 3 in the House of Representatives last year because she repeatedly criticized Mr. Trump for the events of Jan. 6, has become a rather isolated presence in a party that remains strongly in captivity of the former president.
She is seen as a potential presidential candidate in the 2024 election, in which she may try to hoist a flag showing how the party has gone from what her father helped her lead to, one reformed by Trumpism.
Ms. Cheney began her speech by talking about undemocratic countries around the world and nations that oppose the United States, including Russia and China. From there, she talked about Mr. Trump.
She praised Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Mark Meadows, Mr Trump’s last White House chief of staff, for her public testimony in Congress the day before.
“Her courage and patriotism were great to watch,” Ms. Cheney said.
Ms. Cheney faces a Trump-backed rival for her seat in the Wyoming Congress in August, and the race is widely seen as a tough battle for her.
Add Comment