Former Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney is using the attention she got from her endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris last week to make more attention-grabbing comments, such as saying former President Donald Trump isn’t a conservative.
On Sunday, Cheney went on ABC’s “This Week,” where she said Trump’s economic policies aren’t fiscally conservative.
She believes his plans for tariffs, which include placing 100% tariffs on countries that “leave” the U.S. dollar and tariffs of 60% or more on all Chinese goods if he wins a second term, are “anti-conservative policy.”
Cheney said those policies will choke off global trade and are likely to lead the country into an economic depression.
“The important thing for people to remember about something like the tariffs that he's promising, including — you know, in addition to the fact that it's disastrous policy — he can do it alone,” Cheney said. “He does not need Congress, if he were to be re-elected, to impose those massive tariffs that — that will, in fact, kill the American economy and the global economy.”
After Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, both said last week they’ll vote for Harris, Trump issued a response on his social media platform Truth Social.
“Dick Cheney is an irrelevant RINO, along with his daughter, who lost by the largest margin in the History of Congressional Races!” Trump wrote.
On Saturday, the Wyoming Republican Party rejected a proposal to censure or condemn the Cheneys, saying they don’t view them as real Republicans in Wyoming.
Liz Cheney also said the conservative movement will need to rebuild after the upcoming election.
When asked if she’s still a Republican, Cheney only answered that she’s a conservative.
“I’m certainly not a Trump Republican,” she said. “I am a conservative. I think that — that what's happened to the Republican Party today, you know, is indefensible. And I hope to be able to rebuild, as I said, after this, after this cycle.”
Reagan And Bush Comparisons
Cheney said she spoke with Harris before announcing last week that she would vote for her. Some have speculated on social media that she could be awarded a cabinet position in Harris’ administration if she wins the election.
Since casting her first vote for former President Ronald Reagan in 1984, Cheney said she’s never voted for a Democrat before.
Cheney argued on Sunday that Harris has mellowed some of her policies since 2020. Around that time Cheney had called Harris a “radical liberal.”
While arguing that Harris has moderated her policies, Cheney also said the speech the vice president made at the Democratic National Convention last month could have just as easily been made by President Reagan or one of the Bushes. Cheney didn’t clarify whether she was talking about George H.W. Bush or George W. Bush, or both.
“It's very much an embrace and an understanding of, of the exceptional nature of this great nation,” she said. “A love of America. A recognition that America is a special place. A recognition that we all have to work together to ensure that.”
Cheney said this comes in contrast to Trump, who has painted more of a negative picture about the current state of America.
She also claimed that there’s “absolutely no chance” Reagan would support Trump if he were still alive.
“Donald Trump doesn't stand for any of the things that Ronald Reagan did,” she said.
The topic of foreign policy is where Trump has mostly sharply criticized Cheney’s father, who Trump said last week was responsible for engaging America in never-ending wars and skirmishes.
Donald Trump Jr., Trump’s son, posted a meme on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, making fun of national news organizations that had previously been very critical of the former vice president.
On Sunday, Cheney also encouraged independent voters to compare Harris’ policies to Trump’s.
“The Republicans have nominated somebody who, you know, is depraved,” she said. “Somebody who shows us every day that, you know, he has tendencies and he's willing to embrace things that are fundamentally a danger to this nation and to our Constitution. So, the choice, in my view, is not a close one.”
Not Enough To Oppose
Although she voted with Trump more than 90% of the time when he was president, Cheney has consistently criticized Trump since he mounted his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. She also accused him of causing the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot. On Sunday, Cheney said Trump represents “unrecoverable catastrophe.”
Trump has similarly said he will pardon the people still in custody from Jan. 6 and will look into prosecuting Cheney if he’s elected president again.
Cheney believes Trump will be emboldened by the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity from criminal prosecution and will ignore the Constitution to achieve his goals.
Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, has said he wouldn’t have certified the 2020 election and would have handed the decision off to Congress if he had been vice president.
Cheney has long made it clear that she wouldn’t vote for Trump under any circumstance, but it wasn’t until last week that she made the extra step of saying she’ll vote for Harris. Although not particularly shocking, it did symbolize another step Cheney has taken away from the Republican establishment that is overwhelmingly supporting Trump’s bid for reelection.
Other Republicans who oppose Trump like U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney and former Vice President Mike Pence have said they’ll simply write in another candidate’s name than vote for Harris.
Cheney said this isn’t enough given the close race between Harris and Trump.
“If you really do recognize the threat that Donald Trump poses, then it's not enough to simply say, ‘I’m not going to vote for him,’” she said.
Cheney also hinted that she finds it acceptable for people to secretly vote against Trump, noting that all votes are private.
More Criticisms And Praise
On Sunday, Cheney also criticized former South Carolina Gov. and Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley. Haley had condemned Trump during her presidential run, but has since endorsed his campaign. Cheney called this change unprincipled.
Haley defended her support for Trump later Sunday.
“I don’t have to like him or agree with him 100% of the time to know that life for Americans would be better under the policies where we have strong immigration, where we have law and order, where we have an economy where we can look at opportunities, where we’ve got national security that is strong,” she said. “I don’t need to sit there and like someone to decide those policies are better.”
Harris expressed appreciation for the Cheney endorsements last week, which she said puts the country over loyalty to the Republican Party.
Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders also commended them on NBC.
"[Liz] Cheney and I agree on nothing. No issues,” he said. “But what we do believe in is that the United States should retain its democratic foundations.”
Contact Leo Wolfson at leo@cowboystatedaily.com
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
