Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

"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.

The Republican Party is at a turning point, and Republicans must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution. 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.

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) left no doubt in his public remarks. 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.

I am a conservative Republican, and the most conservative of conservative values is reverence for the rule of law. 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.

The question before us now is whether we will join Trump’s crusade to delegitimize and undo the legal outcome of the 2020 election, with all the consequences that might have. I have worked overseas in nations where changes in leadership come only with violence, where democracy takes hold only until the next violent upheaval. America is exceptional because our constitutional system guards against that. At the heart of our republic is a commitment to the peaceful transfer of power among political rivals in accordance with law. President Ronald Reagan described this as our American “miracle.”

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. 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. 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.

For Republicans, the path forward is clear.

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.

Finally, we Republicans need to stand for genuinely conservative principles, and steer away from the dangerous and anti-democratic Trump cult of personality. 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.

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. 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.

History is watching. 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.

Liz Cheney May 5, 2021

mjmoore17 Loc: Philadelphia, PA area

Repukes know that trump is full of it. No need for a commission.

DukeTarHeel Loc: NC's "Research Triangle"

Agreed, they just want a reason to riot and bring democracy down. trump isn't the only big lie in trump town. His admirers call themselves "patriots" - that's an insult to anyone who truly cares about America. They are nothing more than the 21st century equivalents to the German "patriots" of the 1930s.

If you want to see a TRUE conservative "patriot", take a look at Liz Chaney. She's an honest, intelligent, caring woman who is about to be burned at the stake for telling the TRUTH.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

LOL... You guys are hilarious, we will see what the Republican Party thinks of Liz Cheney in the upcoming days.

Hodge Loc: England

Talking that level of crap it is obvious Cheney is in the wrong party.

The dems are praising her while she tries to damage the GOP, but, would they actually take in a traitorous bitch like her? I think not.

Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

Cheney is still a Republican adhering to Republican values and agenda. She just isn’t gullible enough to swallow Trump’s crap; and is not afraid of losing votes to the idiots that have. Read the article and give some thought to what she says. She is a small government Republican.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

Thank you dear comrade for explaining to us what our values are... It is a kin to me trying to tell you that your party's values are those of JFK, doesn't quite fly in today's world, yours is the party of common good and communism, mine is the party of individual rights and the little man fighting against big government.

Shutterbug1697 Loc: Northeast

The trump GOP is genuflecting at trump's feet, rushing to kiss his ***, and begging for money.

Liz Cheney is one of a very few who've bravely chosen to speak out against trump.

The rest of the party are nothing more than COWARDS!

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

LOL, no more so than are you and the rest of your ilk as you quietly watch your party pursue some of the most outrageous policies that the far progressive left can dream up. The policies they are currently trying to push through congress are so radical that they would have never been spoken aloud just 10 short years ago....

You miss shutterbug are also a coward, Liz Cheney and her father are relics of a bygone era.

mwalsh Loc: Houston

Yup.


It looks like if you don't fellate trump...you can't be a GOP leader.

Pretty messed up.

mwalsh Loc: Houston

If you don't kiss the donkey side of trump...you are a traitor to the GOP?

You can't be a good Republican if you won't drink the trumpaide?

Nikki Hay did the flip.

First she denounced trump and said he took the party in the wrong direction...then just days after, someone leaned on her and she re-announced her support for the man.

I have more respect for Cheney.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

Not so true, one does not have to love Trump, but it is politically dangerous for a republican to be seen as siding with the progressives in the democrat party, even more so to be seen as high fiving other Trump haters.... There is a difference, Cheney took it too far and again, she represents the old establishment wing of the Republican Party, preach true conservative values while selling her voters out the back door.

Hodge Loc: England

and against the 75 million that voted for him. Some GOP RINOs are as delusional as Hillary about the basket of deplorables that is half of America.


What I don't get is how anyone can think Biden is the man to save them from systemic racism when (unlike Trump) he spent the last 40 years in politics helping create the system.

mwalsh Loc: Houston

I don't follow her...she is not my senator.

But, which progressive bills has she voted for or at least announced her support?

I just do not know, but that would give me some reason to criticize her.

The only GOP criticism I have heard is that she consistently denounces trump. I have not heard of any policy issues yet.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

75,000,000 people voted for Trump, for her to keep throwing how misguided she thinks those votes were into the faces of the people who supported Trump just does not work well given that she is in a leadership position. It is not about the man but the direction he tried to take the country, focusing on our own economy and problems vs the insanity that the dems focus on. Improving the economy and opportunity for Americans vs destroying the fossil fuel industry in the name of Green initiatives, focusing on what is good in our history instead of "White Privilege" and teaching grade schoolers that they are either white devils or oppressed by their classmates. Standing up to Iran and China or lying down and asking the EU to take that mantle for us.... No, it is not about the man it is about the direction he tried to move to vs the direction that Biden is taking us into today, one of a Nanny state that spends money without regard to the future implications of all of that printed money, Trump deregulated where Biden will regulate us into economic quicksand.... That is what it is about and Cheney is not smart enough to stop irritating the republican base, therefore she will be stripped of her leadership role, maybe Pelosi will have a position for her on the Trump hating side of the aisle.