Liz Cheney seems to relish a good fight. In July of 2013, Liz Cheney announced in a YouTube video that she would be challenging three-term Republican Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY). In her announcement video, Cheney barely mentioned Senator Enzi and mostly focussed her attacks on President Obama. Cheney said that it was time for a "new generation of leaders to step up."
Cheney’s decision to challenge Senator Enzi fractured the Republican Party in Wyoming because Senator Enzi’s politics were so closely aligned with the people of his state. Senator Enzi consistently ranked one the the most conservative members of the Senate and Wyoming is one of the reddest states.
Because of Senator Enzi’s consistently conservative voting record, and incumbent status, it was no surprise that the National Republican Senatorial Committee came out in full support of his reelection. While Cheney would eventually abandon her bid for the Senate, she would first engage in a very nasty and public family feud with her sister.
In June of 2012, Mary Cheney, the younger daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife Lynne, married her longtime partner Heather Poe.
The Cheney family said in a statement following the marriage, “Mary and Heather have been in a committed relationship for many years, and we are delighted that they were able to take advantage of the opportunity to have that relationship recognized. Mary and Heather and their children are very important and much-loved members of our family, and we wish them every happiness.”
Well, apparently not all the Cheney’s were so happy for Mary and Heather - principally, Liz. During a campaign appearance on Fox News Sunday, Liz Cheney said that she opposes same-sex marriage and just disagrees with her sister on the issue.
Liz’s denunciation of same-sex marriage on national television ruffled the feathers her sister-in-law, Heather Poe. Immediately following the Fox broadcast, Poe expressed her frustrations on Facebook posting:
“I was watching my sister-in-law on Fox News Sunday (yes Liz, in fifteen states and the District of Columbia you are my sister-in-law) and was very disappointed to hear her say "I do believe in the traditional definition of marriage." Liz has been a guest in our home, has spent time and shared holidays with our children, and when Mary and I got married in 2012 - she didn't hesitate to tell us how happy she was for us. To have her now say she doesn't support our right to marry is offensive to say the least. I can't help but wonder how Liz would feel if as she moved from state to state, she discovered that her family was protected in one but not the other. I always thought freedom meant freedom for EVERYONE.”
Poe basically accuses her sister-in-law of being a turncoat and says Liz once supported her marriage to her sister. Furthermore, Poe takes a dig at her sister-in-law for relocating from the D.C. area to Wyoming just to run for public office; an attack of carpetbagging that Liz was already facing from Enzi supporters.
Mary Cheney also responded to her sister’s comments on Fox News Sunday telling The New York Times that she long assumed her sister supported same-sex marriage because Liz “was always very supportive” of her relationship with Poe and their two children. Mary also said it was “impossible” for her to reconcile with her sister so long as Liz maintained her opposition to same-sex marriage.
Following the public feud between the Cheney sisters, Dick and Lynne said they were "pained" to see their daughters' disagreement play out in public, but Liz had, “always treated her sister and her sister's family with love and respect, exactly as she should have done."
After facing off with her sister and the Republicans establishment in Wyoming, Liz Cheney decided to end her quest for the Senate citing "serious health issues" in her family. However, within only three short years, Liz Cheney would return to the campaign trail and go on to win Wyoming's at-large House seat.
Once elected to the House, Cheney quickly ascended to become the highest-ranking woman in Republican leadership. Only in her second term, Cheney was elected by her Republican colleagues to chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, the number three position in leadership.
Cheney’s election to House leadership coincided with Donald Trump’s gravity defying rise from reality TV star and real estate model to President of The United States. Trump political assent would eventually present a problem for Cheney when her traditional Republican conservative values collide with Trump sycophancy.
After losing reelection to Joe Biden, President Trump spent weeks agitating his supporters with false allegations of voter fraud. Trump’s attack on the democratic process culminated with a speech he gave outside the White House as Congress was preparing to certify the Electoral College votes.
Trump encouraged a crowd of more than 8,000 of his supporters to march to the Capitol and pressure lawmakers to not allow Joe Biden to become president. Speaking from the lectern Trump said, “Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.”
Following the words of Dear Leader, Trump’s supporters descended on the Capitol, broke into the building and draped a Trump flag over a balcony. Nearly 140 officers were assaulted as they faced off with rioters carrying stun guns, pepper spray and baseball bats.
Succeeding this apocalyptic event, Congressmen David Cicilline (D-RI), Ted Lieu (D-CA), and Jamie Raskin (D-MD) introduced an article of impeachment against President Trump. The Congressmen, along with 211 co-sponsors, charged Trump with “Incitement of Insurrection” for his January 6th speech in which he spurred his supporters to attack the Capitol.
Within hours of President Trump being charged with new high crimes and misdemeanors, Liz Cheney announced she would vote to impeach. Explaining her support for impeachment, Cheney said Trump engaged in the “greatest betrayal by a president of the United States of his office.” Cheney’s reverence for conservatism and the rule of law had officially collided with Trump and Trump-ism.
By the time the House voted to impeach, 10 Republicans cast their votes in favor with Cheney being the only member of GOP House Leadership to support the measure.
Despite Cheney voting with President Trump almost 93% of the time, her decision to impeach him was a bridge too far for her colleagues. All that matters in today’s Republican Party is whether you pledge your allegiance to Donald Trump. In today’s GOP, your pre-eminent reason for being a public servant must be to serve Dear Leader, Donald Trump. In the eyes of the current Republican Party, the most important job of representatives is not to represent their district or state, but to do everything they can to support a narcissistic, entitled, exploitive and empathy impairment individual.
Since leaving the White House, former President Trump has continued to promulgate the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and that he is the rightful president. Even after being stripped of his Facebook and Twitter accounts, Trump has still been able to spread lies about the 2020 election through press releases and a new blog.
On Monday, seemingly out of the blue, Cheney decided to hit back at Trump after he issued one of his standard, nonsensical statements declaring that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
Cheney, tweeted, “The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.”
Cheney’s tweet immediately racked up tens of thousands of retweets and over one hundred thousand likes. Safe to say, those likes and supportive retweets were not coming from Cheney’s Republican House colleagues.
Within hours of Cheney’s tweet, House Minority Leader McCarthy (R-CA) said he had "lost confidence" in Cheney’s ability to carry out her job in leadership and supports removing her.
Unlike Cheney’s fights with former Senator Enzi and her sister Mary, Cheney’s battle with today’s Republican Party is one that Americans of all political stripes should care about. If Cheney is removed from House leadership, it will be because she has stated an indisputable truth: the 2020 presidential election was not stolen. This fact has been confirmed by no less than Trump’s own Attorney General William Barr.
By uniting around the lie that the 2020 election was stolen, the Republican Party is broadcasting that they do not trust the American people to decide who governs them. The Republican Party is saying they know better than the American people. The American people are incapable of deciding who leads them if they do not choose us. This conviction amongst Republican representatives is the height of elitism. The Republican Party has embraced tyranny and wholeheartedly rejected democracy and the democratic process. Should Republicans regain control, they will no doubt install the twice impeached, unindicted co-conspirator Donald J. Trump as head of their tyrannical cult.
Like Speaker Pelosi and President Biden, I strongly believe that America needs a strong and robust Republican Party. No one has a monopoly on good ideas. America is at her best when the brightest minds from every corner of this country enter the arena and work together to tackle the biggest issues of the day. America will get back to this place, but not until the Republican Party divorces themselves from the former president and makes clear that the rule of law and fidelity to the Constitution are paramount.
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