Former Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney sailed into the headlines this week to rally establishment anti-Trump forces, just as he appears ready to win the Republican presidential nomination.
"I will do whatever it takes to make sure that Donald Trump is defeated,” Cheney proclaimed in an interview with Good Morning America, as she kicked off a media tour for her new book "Oath and Honor."
Cheney's "whatever it takes" comment was her reply when asked if she would endorse Biden in the 2024 election. The conviction in her voice makes one wonder exactly what lengths she would go to keep Trump from returning to power.
It's no surprise that Cheney is using the release of her new book to launch another front in her ongoing war against Trump. It’s a war of words, and in this kind of war, the most desperate (and defeated) Republicans get the most attention from the establishment media.
Cheney did not disappoint, voicing a series of increasingly bizarre and outrageous claims to earn the most attention.
The fear-mongering evokes images of a Ceasar-like Trump on horseback leading a host of military officials and supporters across the Potomac to dissolve the Senate and House of Representatives and declare himself the emperor of America. It paints a scary picture, but not one based on reality. After the 2020 election, Trump tried very hard to stay in office for four more years — but ultimately gave up and left town when his efforts failed.
But that hasn't stopped Cheney's new scorched-earth approach. She argued in one interview that current House Speaker Mike Johnson “can’t be” the speaker in January 2025 because he supported Trump. She also expressed her preference that Republicans lose their majority in the House of Representatives to prevent an “existential crisis” in the country.
Cheney also branded millions of American voters as fundamentally un-American, just because they supported Trump. “You can’t both be for Donald Trump and the Constitution, you have to choose,” she said in an interview. She went on to insult the intelligence of Trump supporters declaring they were merely victims of a “cult of personality” that had captured the Republican Party.
It’s impossible to watch Liz Cheney’s monotone declarations of war against Trump without comparing her rhetoric to that of her father former Vice President Dick Cheney launching the war on terror after September 11th. His daughter is now playing in the same absolutes.
"Trump is not an acceptable alternative. He is not the lesser of two evils. He is a completely unfit man for office," she said. "He's already shown us what he would do, and he can never be near the Oval Office again," she added.
In an interview with MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace, Cheney suggested the January 6th riots were worse than the 9/11 terrorist attacks because Trump and his supporters were attacking the “foundations of Democracy” instead of just the foundations of some of America’s most iconic buildings.
Does she really believe what she is saying or is she just trying to sell more books? Perhaps Liz Cheney finds herself in the same position as Republicans (like Mitt Romney) who previously praised and embraced Trump and are now trying to rewrite history.
Liz Cheney's war has put her in the company of strange bedfellows. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow almost apologized to her viewers for giving the daughter of Dick Cheney a platform, comparing the interview to a mouse and a snake agreeing to get on Noah’s Ark to prevent the destruction of the entire species. “Now we’re either all going down or we’re all in the same boat,” she said.
The media campaign seems to have the desired effect as her book toppled Britney Spears' memoir as the number one best-selling nonfiction book on Amazon.
I suppose we should concede that Trump sparked this war in the Cheneys when he called on his supporters on January 6th to “get rid of the weak congresspeople, the ones that aren’t any good, the Liz Cheneys of the world.” Are we surprised the Cheney family takes these kinds of threats seriously?
What is surprising is that Liz Cheney is ready to dismember the entire Republican party and all they stand for rather than see Trump in office again. That's the kind of behavior and rhetoric reserved for Democrats. Why hasn't she joined them yet? Maybe because she believes that a disaffected Republican is the most effective voice to help stop Trump. A Liz Cheney Democrat also might not sell as many books.
Charlie Spiering may be reached at: Charlie.Spiering@gmail.com
