It made for a good laugh a few months ago when Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), a particularly fierce critic of former President Donald Trump, indicated she wasn't ruling out a run for president in 2024. Her actions as of late have only fueled further speculation that she really is going for it. On Tuesday night she not only publicly railed against Trump before a large audience, but she did so in New Hampshire. As the first primary state, even just stepping foot there can get people talking.
Now that she's delivering campaign-style speeches in New Hampshire, which party does Liz Cheney reckon she's going to run for the nomination of? Perhaps some new independent formation whose platform is nothing but "Remember, Remember, the Sixth of January"?
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) November 9, 2021
“But we really have to reject what the former president is doing and what he continues to attempt to do…So I think that ’24 is going to be really important no matter who’s running, and I think it’s going to be very important to make sure that it’s not Donald Trump.” —Rep. Cheney
— Julia (@Jules31415) November 10, 2021
Rep. Cheney made her remarks at St. Anselm College’s Nackey Loeb School of Communication. She lamented that we are, "at this moment, when it matters most, confronting a domestic threat that we’ve never faced before: a former president who's attempting to unravel the foundations of our Constitutional Republic, aided by political leaders who have made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man."
While the congresswoman claims to be a "conservative Republican" and said "I disagree strongly with nearly everything President Biden has done since he has been in office," somehow Trump, who is no longer in office, is the bigger problem.
Cheney referenced the GOP leadership fundraising dinner from Monday night, where Trump spoke. She mentioned the former president "reportedly" said the insurrection occurred on November 3 and that the actions from January 6, which he reportedly said amounted to protests, were justified.
Rep. Cheney is one of just two Republicans on the select committee to investigate the events of January 6, and is the vice-chair. The other Republican member is Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), also a particularly fierce critic of Trump. Cheney was selected for the committee by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). The speaker went on to veto two of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's picks, Reps. Jim Banks (R-IN) and Jim Jordan (R-OH), who then went on to pull all of his picks as a result.
Further suggesting Cheney may be running, she then went on to speak about her vision for the Republican Party. "I know this nation needs a Republican Party that is based on truth, one that puts forward our ideals and our policies based on substance, one that is willing to reject the former president's lies, one that is willing to tell the truth, that millions of Americans have been tragically misled by former President Trump, who continues to this day to use language that he knows provoked violence on January 6."
She continued to offer that "we need a Republican Party that is led by people who remember that the peaceful transfer power of power is the sacred, and it undergirds the very foundations of our republic. We need Republican leaders who remember that fidelity to the constitution, fidelity to the rule of law."
In May, Cheney was ousted from her position of leadership as the chair of the House Republican Conference and replaced by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY).
Cheney has said that she will not support Trump in 2024, should he run again, which should come as a shock to nobody. The former president has been hinting and teasing another run for some time now.
As several polls have showed recently, Trump has a slight edge over President Joe Biden in a hypothetical matchup between the two of them for 2024.
(cont.)
— CSPAN (@cspan) November 9, 2021
"aided by political leaders who have made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous & irrational man."