Cheney warns Trump win would be dangerous for US
DES MOINES, Iowa – Former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, a vocal Republican critic of former President Donald Trump, said in a speech on Wednesday that the GOP is threatening democracy.
Cheney said the country’s politics are undergoing a “tectonic shift,” citing instances of members of the Republican Party supporting Trump’s claims of the 2020 election having been stolen as key evidence.
“Certainly, what’s happening in the Republican Party is dangerous,” Cheney said. “We now have one of our two major political parties that has abandoned the Constitution.”
Trump is being supported by Republican officials who continue to excuse his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, Cheney said, adding that their continued support of Trump creates a degree of legitimacy among voters.
“Republican elected officials excuse the behavior – enabled the behavior – and by doing that, it created a situation where voters thought, ‘Well, you know, it must not be that he’s that dangerous, because if he were, then you would have more people saying so,’” Cheney said.
President Joe Biden and Trump both have warned prospective voters of dire consequences for the nation if the other wins another term in the White House.
Cheney served as the U.S. representative of Wyoming’s at-large congressional district from 2017 to 2023. She was the No. 3 Republican in the House leadership. She served as a member of the House Armed Services Committee, the China Task Force, the Natural Resources Committee and the House Committee on Rules. She was defeated in the GOP primary in 2022.
During the Wednesday night lecture at Drake University, Cheney said the continued support of Trump prevents the GOP from presenting candidates who are popular among constituents.
Cheney, who advocates for Trump’s defeat in November, said she hopes one of the outcomes of the political shift will be a reevaluation of how Americans engage with politics.
Although Trump has seen sweeping success across the nation in Republican primaries, Cheney said he should not feel confident going into the general election.
“In a number of these primaries, what we saw was that in some instances, close to 30% of the Republicans said they won’t vote for Donald Trump,” Cheney said. “So although he won, that is not a basis on which someone should go into a general election feeling any comfort about being able to prevail in the general.”
Cheney said the future of America’s democracy hinges on Trump’s defeat in November.
“We know (Trump) tried once not to leave office, and he will have no incentive to guarantee a peaceful transfer of power and to leave office should (he) be selected again,” Cheney said. “As frustrated as I know people get sometimes with policy disagreements you might have – and I certainly have policy disagreements with the Biden administration – I know the nation can survive bad policy. We can’t survive a president who is willing to torch the Constitution.”