Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) hasn’t ruled out running for president in 2024. She hasn’t heeded fellow Republicans’ demands she quit as the No. 3 House GOP leader. She hasn’t campaigned for a Fox News gig — they parted ways when she ran for Senate in 2013.
And, most important of all, Cheney hasn’t stopped denouncing Donald Trump, in public and in private, as a threat not just to Republicans but to the republic.
Trump’s false claim he was cheated out of a second term is “poison in the bloodstream of our democracy,” Cheney said Monday at the annual retreat for the conservative American Enterprise Institute in Sea Island, Ga.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), before President Biden arrives to speak to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday. (Caroline Brehman/Pool/AP)
The 54-year-old lawmaker also repeated her attacks on Trump over the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, which she has accused him of encouraging and described as an assault on the peaceful and constitutional transfer of power.
“We can't whitewash what happened on January 6 or perpetuate Trump's big lie,” she said in Sea Island. “It is a threat to democracy. What he did on January 6 is a line that cannot be crossed.”
CNN first reported Cheney’s comments, which came in a behind-closed-doors interview with former House speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). The Daily 202 confirmed the accuracy of the quotes with an ally of the embattled representative.
There’s no question Cheney’s continuing broadsides against Trump are causing consternation in her party and jeopardizing her chances of remaining atop the House GOP conference. That group seems on track to hold a meeting next week in which Cheney’s job could be on the line as she is increasingly at odds with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
Names of prominent Republican women who could replace her were already being floated. Among the potential successors: A fellow George W. Bush administration alumna, Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), who has cultivated close ties to Trump but been conspicuously quiet in the Cheney kerfuffle. Other names, according to Punchbowl, include Rep. Young Kim (Calif.), Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (Fla.), Rep. Ashley Hinson (Iowa), Rep. Nancy Mace (S.C.), Rep. Jackie Walorski (Ind.), Rep. Stephanie I. Bice (Okla.), and Rep. Kat Cammack (Fla.).
She has suggested Republican senators who challenged Biden’s victory in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot should not be contenders in 2024.
“I do think that some of our candidates who led the charge, particularly the senators who led the unconstitutional charge, not to certify the election, you know, in my view that’s disqualifying,” Cheney told the New York Post.
First, it’s the right thing, the ally said. Second, supporting Trump invites a repeat of Jan. 6 — “someone who’s going to violently attack the Capitol and our democracy.” Third, supporting Trump invites a repeat of Nov. 3, when he lost the White House in an election that saw strong GOP showings down ballot.
“Maybe the consequences won’t be felt in 2022, because the map is pretty good for Republicans,” the ally said. “But this [Trump] is not the pathway to becoming a winning party and a governing party.”
The ally acknowledged being the House Republican conference chair — largely tasked with party messaging — is a thankless job when the GOP doesn’t have the White House, and seemed to suggest Cheney wouldn’t be heartbroken to lose it.
In the process, she has not only antagonized Trump and the Republicans eager to parrot his election falsehoods as long as he remains the leader of the GOP, but made it harder for the GOP to erase or rewrite the history of the Jan. 6 riot, while reminding Americans one of the reasons they voted for Biden.
A critical test of her future in the GOP, and of the party’s future, could come early next week after the House returns to work. The Republican Conference could meet as early as Wednesday, when her detractors could formally seek to unseat her.
Cheney easily survived a similar challenge in early February, keeping her job in a 145-to-61 vote by secret ballot, a format sparing them from retribution from Trump and his allies in Congress.
But that was when McCarthy vocally stood with her. McCarthy has since pared back his support, while some of his allies have reportedly been agitating to remove her.
(McCarthy said in a “Fox & Friends” interview on Tuesday House Republicans have “no concern about how she voted on impeachment,” but fret about “her ability to carry out the job as conference chair, to carry out the message. We all need to be working as one if we’re able to win the majority. Remember, majorities are not given, they are earned.”)
And it was before Trump sharply escalated his campaign against her, culminating in a long-distance back-and-forth Monday between the Twitter-banned former president and Cheney about the 2020 election.
My colleagues Marianna Sotomayor, Colby Itkowitz and Mike DeBonis report:
“…Trump issued a statement attempting to commandeer the term “Big Lie,” commonly used to refer to the false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, by asserting that the term should now refer to President Biden’s election victory.
“Cheney quickly condemned Trump’s comment as well as anyone who supports his statements about the election.
‘The 2020 presidential election was not stolen,” Cheney tweeted. ‘Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.’
Hours later, Trump released another statement, this time attacking Cheney by calling her a ‘big-shot warmonger’ and claiming that people in Wyoming ‘never liked her much.’”
Cheney won with 63 percent of the vote in 2018 and 68.7 percent in 2020.
And, most important of all, Cheney hasn’t stopped denouncing Donald Trump, in public and in private, as a threat not just to Republicans but to the republic.
Trump’s false claim he was cheated out of a second term is “poison in the bloodstream of our democracy,” Cheney said Monday at the annual retreat for the conservative American Enterprise Institute in Sea Island, Ga.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), before President Biden arrives to speak to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday. (Caroline Brehman/Pool/AP)
The 54-year-old lawmaker also repeated her attacks on Trump over the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, which she has accused him of encouraging and described as an assault on the peaceful and constitutional transfer of power.
“We can't whitewash what happened on January 6 or perpetuate Trump's big lie,” she said in Sea Island. “It is a threat to democracy. What he did on January 6 is a line that cannot be crossed.”
CNN first reported Cheney’s comments, which came in a behind-closed-doors interview with former House speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). The Daily 202 confirmed the accuracy of the quotes with an ally of the embattled representative.
There’s no question Cheney’s continuing broadsides against Trump are causing consternation in her party and jeopardizing her chances of remaining atop the House GOP conference. That group seems on track to hold a meeting next week in which Cheney’s job could be on the line as she is increasingly at odds with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
Names of prominent Republican women who could replace her were already being floated. Among the potential successors: A fellow George W. Bush administration alumna, Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), who has cultivated close ties to Trump but been conspicuously quiet in the Cheney kerfuffle. Other names, according to Punchbowl, include Rep. Young Kim (Calif.), Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (Fla.), Rep. Ashley Hinson (Iowa), Rep. Nancy Mace (S.C.), Rep. Jackie Walorski (Ind.), Rep. Stephanie I. Bice (Okla.), and Rep. Kat Cammack (Fla.).
But what does Cheney want?
She has expressed confidence she’ll defeat an unusually crowded Republican primary field in her next House race. She has declined to rule out a presidential run in 2024 (the actual question, and her answer, were pretty vague: The New York Post asked whether she’d ever consider running in the future and she replied: “I’m not ruling anything in or out — ever is a long time.”)She has suggested Republican senators who challenged Biden’s victory in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot should not be contenders in 2024.
“I do think that some of our candidates who led the charge, particularly the senators who led the unconstitutional charge, not to certify the election, you know, in my view that’s disqualifying,” Cheney told the New York Post.
“What does she want? That’s a big question,” an ally of hers told me Monday night. “I don’t think she’s thinking that big right now.”
Cheney “feels an obligation to tell the truth” about Trump for several reasons, said this ally, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly.First, it’s the right thing, the ally said. Second, supporting Trump invites a repeat of Jan. 6 — “someone who’s going to violently attack the Capitol and our democracy.” Third, supporting Trump invites a repeat of Nov. 3, when he lost the White House in an election that saw strong GOP showings down ballot.
“Maybe the consequences won’t be felt in 2022, because the map is pretty good for Republicans,” the ally said. “But this [Trump] is not the pathway to becoming a winning party and a governing party.”
The ally acknowledged being the House Republican conference chair — largely tasked with party messaging — is a thankless job when the GOP doesn’t have the White House, and seemed to suggest Cheney wouldn’t be heartbroken to lose it.
“This is bigger than internal Republican leadership dynamics,” the ally said. “This is about the soul of the party and the foundations of the republic.”
Cheney has been charting her rebellious course since the aftermath of Jan. 6. She was one of just 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Trump in January and did not side with 139 of her House colleagues in voting to overturn President Biden’s election.In the process, she has not only antagonized Trump and the Republicans eager to parrot his election falsehoods as long as he remains the leader of the GOP, but made it harder for the GOP to erase or rewrite the history of the Jan. 6 riot, while reminding Americans one of the reasons they voted for Biden.
A critical test of her future in the GOP, and of the party’s future, could come early next week after the House returns to work. The Republican Conference could meet as early as Wednesday, when her detractors could formally seek to unseat her.
Cheney easily survived a similar challenge in early February, keeping her job in a 145-to-61 vote by secret ballot, a format sparing them from retribution from Trump and his allies in Congress.
But that was when McCarthy vocally stood with her. McCarthy has since pared back his support, while some of his allies have reportedly been agitating to remove her.
(McCarthy said in a “Fox & Friends” interview on Tuesday House Republicans have “no concern about how she voted on impeachment,” but fret about “her ability to carry out the job as conference chair, to carry out the message. We all need to be working as one if we’re able to win the majority. Remember, majorities are not given, they are earned.”)
And it was before Trump sharply escalated his campaign against her, culminating in a long-distance back-and-forth Monday between the Twitter-banned former president and Cheney about the 2020 election.
My colleagues Marianna Sotomayor, Colby Itkowitz and Mike DeBonis report:
“…Trump issued a statement attempting to commandeer the term “Big Lie,” commonly used to refer to the false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, by asserting that the term should now refer to President Biden’s election victory.
“Cheney quickly condemned Trump’s comment as well as anyone who supports his statements about the election.
‘The 2020 presidential election was not stolen,” Cheney tweeted. ‘Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.’
Hours later, Trump released another statement, this time attacking Cheney by calling her a ‘big-shot warmonger’ and claiming that people in Wyoming ‘never liked her much.’”
Cheney won with 63 percent of the vote in 2018 and 68.7 percent in 2020.
