Inside Cheney’s plan to take on Trump
Fighting to save party, not her job
WASHINGTON — Rep. Liz Cheney lost her House leadership position Wednesday, but she aims to become an even more influential political figure capable of weakening former President Donald Trump’s hold on their party — and continuing to push for his purge.
Rather than focusing on whipping votes to save her job as conference chair, the Wyoming Republican this week has been drafting plans for increased travel and media appearances meant to drive home her case that Trump is unfit for a role in the Republican Party or as the nation’s leader were he to run in 2024, according to a person briefed on the plans.
She is also considering an expanded political operation that would allow her to endorse and financially support other Republican candidates who share her view of the danger that Trump poses to the Republican Party and the country, the person said.
Cheney has told allies that she is determined to run for reelection, despite a recent censure resolution from her state’s Republican Party, and plans to debate all comers across Wyoming about Trump’s denial of the 2020 election results and role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“This is not about policy. This is not about partisanship. This is about our duty as Americans,” Cheney said Tuesday night in a brief but dramatic address on the House floor in which she laid out the reasons for her decision to continue to fight Trump.
“Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar. I will not participate in that.
“I will not sit back and watch in silence, while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president’s crusade to undermine our democracy.”
Cheney has told allies she realizes the effort could take years and cost her donors and even her job. Those aware of her plans, like others for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Cheney is unlikely initially to join with other groups of current or former Republicans who oppose Trump’s role in the party.
But she is decidedly against following the path of other Republican Trump critics who have bowed out of public life rather than confront his power over their party, and she has signaled that she is unwilling to moderate her conservative ideological approach.
“She is, I think, the leader of the non-Trump Republicans, and I don’t know how big that group is,” said Bill Kristol, a prominent conservative critic of Trump who chairs the Republican Accountability Project. “It could be 10 to 15 percent of the party, though, and that is a lot of people. It is a fair number of donors, and it has the potential to grow.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has repeatedly warned colleagues that exacerbating divisions over the 2020 election result and the Jan. 6 riot could undermine the party’s fortunes in the 2022 midterm elections, though his pleas have not stemmed Trump’s focus on both issues.
McCarthy wrote a letter to his Republican colleagues Monday warning them that “each day spent relitigating the past is one less day we have to seize the future.”