As expected, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) was defeated by challenger Harriet Hageman in the GOP primary on Tuesday, but in her concession speech, Cheney made it clear that she plans to do everything in her power to make sure that failed former president Donald Trump is eventually brought low.
Speaking to supporters in Jackson, Wyoming, Cheney noted:
“Our nation is young in the history of mankind, and yet we’re the oldest democracy in the world. Our survival is not guaranteed. History has shown us over and over again how poisonous lies destroyed three nations. Over the last several months, in the January 6 hearings, the American people have watched dozens of Republicans, including the most senior officials working for President Trump in the White House, the Justice Department, and on his campaign—people who served President Trump loyally—testify that they all told him the election was not stolen or rigged and there was no massive fraud. That’s why President Trump and others invent excuses, pretexts for people not to watch the hearings at all. But no citizen of this republic is a bystander. All of us have an obligation to understand what actually happened. We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.”
Cheney then branded Trump as a liar and pointed to his attacks on the FBI agents who were doing their jobs when they served a search warrant on his Mar-a-Lago resort last week:
“To believe Donald Trump’s election lies, you must believe that dozens of federal and state courts who ruled against him, including many judges he appointed, were all corrupted and biased, that all manner of crazy conspiracy theories stole our election from us and that Donald Trump actually remains president today. As of last week, you must also believe that 30 career FBI agents, who have spent their lives working to serve our country, abandoned their honor and their oath and went to Mar-a-Lago, not to perform a lawful search or address a national security threat, but instead with a secret plan to plant fake incriminating documents in the boxes they seized. This is yet another insidious lie.
“Donald Trump knows that voicing these conspiracies will provoke violence and threats of violence. This happened on January 6, and it’s now happening again.”
For the time being, Trump has bested Cheney. But she’s far from finished with him and still has over four months to make his life hell as she continues to serve on the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection.
