Cheney Via Washington Post: ‘The GOP Is At a Turning Point; History is Watching Us’
In the midst of her war of words with former President Donald Trump, Liz Cheney has taken to The Washington Post to, well, post her thoughts on where she stands in the GOP, as well as where she believes the GOP could be headed. She also offered her opinions on Trump's continued claims that the presidential election was "rigged."
Writing in The Post, Cheney had this to say:
"In public statements again this week, former president Donald Trump has repeated his claims that the 2020 election was a fraud and was stolen. His message: I am still the rightful president, and President Biden is illegitimate. Trump repeats these words now with full knowledge that exactly this type of language provoked violence on Jan. 6. And, as the Justice Department and multiple federal judges have suggested, there is good reason to believe that Trump’s language can provoke violence again. Trump is seeking to unravel critical elements of our constitutional structure that make democracy work — confidence in the result of elections and the rule of law. No other American president has ever done this."
Cheney, who has come under much fire from her own political party, including being censured by the Wyoming Republican Party, has maintained her stance on the events that occurred on January 6 and she wrote that she believes the Republican Party is at a turning point.
"Republicans must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution," she wrote. "In the immediate wake of the violence of Jan. 6, almost all of us knew the gravity and the cause of what had just happened — we had witnessed it firsthand."
Cheney took House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) to task for allegedly "changing his story" when it came to his views on Trump's responsibility during the Capitol attack.
"House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) left no doubt in his public remarks," she wrote. "On the floor of the House on Jan. 13, McCarthy said: “The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.” Now, McCarthy has changed his story."
Despite claims of others to the contrary, Cheney stated, unequivocally, that she is a Republican (and not just one in name only).
"I am a conservative Republican, and the most conservative of conservative values is reverence for the rule of law," Cheney wrote. "Each of us swears an oath before God to uphold our Constitution. The electoral college has spoken. More than 60 state and federal courts, including multiple Trump-appointed judges, have rejected the former president’s arguments, and refused to overturn election results. That is the rule of law; that is our constitutional system for resolving claims of election fraud."
Cheney once again spoke of Trump and his seeming unwillingness to accept reality, as well as how she believes her fellow Republicans, and just her fellow Americans in general, need to respond.
"While embracing or ignoring Trump’s statements might seem attractive to some for fundraising and political purposes, that approach will do profound long-term damage to our party and our country," she wrote. "Trump has never expressed remorse or regret for the attack of Jan. 6 and now suggests that our elections, and our legal and constitutional system, cannot be trusted to do the will of the people."
Cheney continued, stating that, "This is immensely harmful, especially as we now compete on the world stage against Communist China and its claims that democracy is a failed system."
Cheney then outlined what she believes her party needs to do, in order to move on in a civil, respectable way.
"For Republicans, the path forward is clear," she wrote. "First, support the ongoing Justice Department criminal investigations of the Jan. 6 attack. Those investigations must be comprehensive and objective; neither the White House nor any member of Congress should interfere.
Second, we must support a parallel bipartisan review by a commission with subpoena power to seek and find facts; it will describe for all Americans what happened. This is critical to defeat the misinformation and nonsense circulating in the press and on social media. No currently serving member of Congress — with an eye to the upcoming election cycle — should participate. We should appoint former officials, members of the judiciary and other prominent Americans who can be objective, just as we did after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The commission should be focused on the Jan. 6 attacks. The Black Lives Matter and antifa violence of last summer was illegal and reprehensible, but it is a different problem with a different solution."
Cheney offered a rallying cry for the GOP, again urging them to turn away from Trump.
"Finally, we Republicans need to stand for genuinely conservative principles, and steer away from the dangerous and anti-democratic Trump cult of personality," she wrote. "In our hearts, we are devoted to the American miracle. We believe in the rule of law, in limited government, in a strong national defense, and in prosperity and opportunity brought by low taxes and fiscally conservative policies."
Cheney did not cow tow to Democrats in her article, however.
"There is much at stake now, including the ridiculous wokeness of our political rivals, the irrational policies at the border and runaway spending that threatens a return to the catastrophic inflation of the 1970s," she wrote. "Reagan formed a broad coalition from across the political spectrum to return America to sanity, and we need to do the same now. We know how. But this will not happen if Republicans choose to abandon the rule of law and join Trump’s crusade to undermine the foundation of our democracy and reverse the legal outcome of the last election."
Finally, Cheney summed up her entire position in her battle with Trump and his supporters.
"History is watching," she wrote. "Our children are watching. We must be brave enough to defend the basic principles that underpin and protect our freedom and our democratic process. I am committed to doing that, no matter what the short-term political consequences might be."
The full article can be read in The Washington Post by clicking here.