Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) Found no new friends in the Republican Party, as her star exploded in prime time of former President Trump on Thursday night. Nothing worries her.
Cheney, a dynastic figure sitting in the House of Representatives once held by her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, used his high-ranking seat on the Jan. 6 election commission to accuse Trump of abusing the presidency’s powers to organized nothing but an attempted coup – explosive charges that cemented her status as a Public Enemy № 1 in the eyes of MAGA loyalists.
The much-watched hearing further complicated Cheney’s path to re-election in dark red Wyoming, Trump’s stronghold, where her main opponent has the strong support of the 45th president, who is actively opposed to the rebellious incumbent president.
But as Cheney’s attacks on Trump intensify, it is becoming increasingly clear that she is motivated by something other than securing her future in the lower house. Whether it is a self-sacrificing desire to save the country’s democratic traditions from the former president or an egotistical effort to raise its own fame and political power largely depends on the views of its fans and critics.
What is not in question is that Cheney has left her legacy on her relentless anti-Trump activism – a reputation that will become increasingly ingrained as the elected committee broadcasts its investigative findings in a long series of public hearings that will dominate the discussion in Washington for the rest of the month.
“President Trump convened the crowd, gathered the crowd and ignited the flames of this attack,” Cheney, the committee’s deputy chairman, said during a prime-time hearing on Thursday night.
For Trump’s supporters, Cheney is a huge asset to the investigation, offering the commission not only a good dose of bipartisan legitimacy, but also an experienced legal minder who knows the intricacies of the GOP conference and its complex relationship with the former president.
“She’s a great lawyer,” [and] she was chair of the Republican Conference in the House of Representatives, “said Republican Jamie Ruskin (D-Md.), a former professor of constitutional law who also serves on the committee of inquiry. “So she obviously knows the terrain better than anyone else on the committee.”
For Trump’s allies on and off Capitol Hill, however, Cheney is simply a traitor to the party – a “Pelosi Republican” who is almost denied, while Republican leaders are trying to take advantage of Trump’s popularity in his efforts to regain control of the House. of representatives in November. by-elections.
House of Representatives minority leader Kevin McCarthy, of California, who wants to take the oratory next year, said this week that the responsibility for January 6 falls on “everyone in the country”.
In a sense, Cheney is unlikely to take on the role of a Republican iconoclast. Her family ranks among the most powerful dynasties of the Republican Party in the last half century, and her father’s unique conservatism – combined with his apologetic approach to power policy – has made him a favorite among the Republican base.
Similarly, Liz Cheney’s tough conservative stance – including strong attacks on gay marriage during an early campaign – made her a villain in the eyes of Democrats across the country, but helped quickly get her into the leadership ranks after arriving on Capitol Hill in 2017.
In another sense, however, Cheney is naturally suited to play Trump’s foil.
Trump has devoted much of his successful 2016 campaign to breaking the Bush-Cheney administration’s overseas entanglements, most notably the 2003 decision to start the Iraq war, which was backed by the older Cheney. After taking over the White House, Trump continued these attacks on the old Republican Guard, which pursued an aggressive interventionist foreign policy, a group that included both Cheney.
Although Cheney opposed Trump’s first impeachment, she was outraged by his actions around the attack on the Capitol, where a violent mob of Trump supporters tried to undo his electoral defeat. More than 150 police officers were injured in the riot.
Cheney was one of only 10 Republicans to support Trump’s impeachment after the uprising, and she jumped headfirst in her role as an investigator into the tragedy. On Thursday, she used the television hearing platform to warn Republicans who still support Trump that the story will not be kind to them.
“Tonight I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the defenseless: the day will come when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonesty will remain,” she said.
Proponents of the large-scale investigation note the importance of joining the investigation of a Republican with a Cheney stature.
“It’s important because, as she said, it’s not about political parties or your political views. It’s about finding out the truth, “said a U.S. Capitol police sergeant. This was said by Aquilino Gonel after the hearing. “And from what the committee has set out today, much remains to be done.”
But Cheney’s disobedience comes at a political cost.
Last year, after Cheney refused to stop criticizing Trump for his role in the Capitol Rebellion, the Republican Conference voted overwhelmingly to oust her from the leadership, replacing her with a Trump loyalist, Eliza Stefanick (RN.Y.). ), which embraced the lies of the former president about stolen elections.
Most recently, the Republican National Committee voted to condemn Cheney – along with the only Republican on the committee, Adam Kinzinger (Illinois) – for wanting to join the Democrats in the Jan. 6 investigation. This decision, accused the Republican National Commission, “is destructive to the institution of the US House of Representatives, the Republican Party and our republic.”
After the committee’s election on Thursday, attacks on Cheney by Trump’s allies became even more pronounced. During the hearing, Tucker Carlson, a hugely popular Fox News expert, described Cheney as the “lady of the Iraq war” who is now “lecturing us on honor and truth.”
Carlson’s guest was Joe Kent, a Trump supporter from Washington State, who launched a major challenge against the Republic of Jaime Herrera Boitler (R-Wash.), Who also backed Trump’s second impeachment. He also had a few harsh words about the Wyoming Republican.
“This is absolutely absurd and insulting,” Kent said of Cheney’s attacks on Trump’s defenders. “She thinks we can’t go back and look at her record of lying to the American people throughout her career and benefiting from it, but she also has to raise it all:” Oh, it has to be a big thing Trump.
Kent said the Capitol rebels were in Washington on Jan. 6 not because of anything Trump did or said, but because the “vast majority” of Americans did not feel their voices were heard in the ballot box, so things they started to get a little tangled. ”
Trump supports Katie Britt against Mo Brooks in the primary runoff in the Alabama Senate. Pence’s legal team found allegations of election fraud insignificant, unverifiable before January 6
Faced with such attacks, Cheney has found a new group of allies: Democrats, who have always opposed her conservative political dictates but now support her as she faces a common opponent in Trump.
“Liz Cheney and I disagree on almost probably 80 percent of the contentious issues that arise, give or take away 10 points,” House Majority Leader Stenny Hoyer (D-Md.) Told reporters this week. “But what she stands for is the truth.”
“That’s why she was removed as the leader of the Republican Party,” he continued. “Because the Republican Party didn’t want to hear the truth.”
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