US Representative Liz Cheney (Republican-Wyoming) speaks to supporters at an election night event during the Wyoming primary on August 16, 2022
Photo credit: AFP
Republican Rep. Liz Cheney has vowed to prevent Donald Trump from winning again at the White House after he suffered a crushing loss to the first challenger backed by the former president on Tuesday. He called on Americans to unite across party lines.
Cheney, who served three terms in Wyoming’s only U.S. House seat, lost Tuesday’s Republican primary to conservative attorney Harriet Hegeman, insisting he would concede to his opponents after the 2020 election. She has long criticized Trump for not doing so.
Addressing supporters at his ranch not far from his home as the sun set over the nearby Teton Mountains, Cheney spoke of the Jan. 6 uprising at the U.S. Capitol and curbing outrage by Trump and other Republican leaders. warned about the refusal of It put the country in danger.
“Our country is once again on the brink of lawlessness and violence,” she said, blaming Trump squarely. “I’ve been saying since January 6th that I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure Donald Trump never gets anywhere near the Oval Office again. I mean it.
Cheney was a rising star in the Republican Party until he stood up to Trump. The political cost of Cheney’s defiance increased after she voted to impeach Trump in the aftermath of an attack on the Capitol by a mob of her supporters.The Wyoming Republicans voted to condemn her. , called for her resignation. She was then removed as the House Republican Party’s third-ranked leader by her colleagues who accused her of abandoning her Republican party.
As a result, she lost to Hageman by a margin of 2-1 on Tuesday, halving the votes. In her concession speech, Cheney hinted she wasn’t stepping away from the political arena, but didn’t say explicitly what happened next. As Vice Chair of the Council, she will continue to hold forums through January about her campaign against Trump.
Citing Republican President Abraham Lincoln, who led the United States through the Civil War, Cheney said no office was worth betraying the democratic principles on which the United States was built.
“Two years ago, I won this primary with 73% of the vote. I could have easily repeated the same thing,” she said. “But I would have had to agree with President Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. It was a path I could not and would not take.”
In his speech, Mr. Hageman said, ‘Wyoming has called the elites to their attention. We will no longer tolerate representatives who do not represent us.’
Wyoming is a credible Republican state, so the Republican primary winner is almost certain to win the general election.
In a post on his website, Truth Social, Trump called Haigman’s victory a “complete rebuke” to the Jan. 6 commission and a “great result for America.”
Cheney’s loss is the latest example of Trump’s grip on the Republican Party. Of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Mr. Trump after last year’s Capitol riots, only two survived the primary and put it to the ballot in November’s general election. Cheney is his fourth loser, with four retiring.
Among those 10 are Cheney, who refutes Trump’s election lies, who Republicans must hold accountable for the Jan. He was the most prominent and tenacious person in arguing that the order and constitution.
“At the heart of the Jan. 6 attack is our nation’s belief that legal elections, reviewed by the courts as necessary and sanctioned by the states and electoral colleges, will determine who becomes president. It’s a willingness to embrace dangerous conspiracies that attack core premises,” Cheney said.
A former Trump supporter and conservative on most social and security policy issues, Cheney temporarily switched parties to a Wyoming Democrat and openly urged him to vote for her in the Republican primary. But the prospect of having enough Democrats to do it has always been a jackpot.
Hegemann’s primary victory made it all but certain that she would win the general election in November.
Speculation is rife in both Wyoming and Washington that Cheney may be considering a run for president in 2024. Her spokesman Jeremy Adler said Cheney has repeatedly stressed that he has not yet made a decision about making such a bid.
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