OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Republican Rep. Liz Cheney suffered a blistering defeat last month when she lost the Wyoming GOP primary to Trump-backed Harriet Hageman.
With just months left before she leaves office, Cheney is already talking about the 2024 presidential election and fueling speculation that she may make a bid for the White House.
While speaking at The Texas Tribune Festival, the outgoing lawmaker threatened to leave the Republican Party if Donald Trump is the 2024 nominee.
“I’m going to make sure Donald Trump, I’m going to do everything I can to make sure he is not the nominee. And if he is the nominee, I won’t be a Republican,” she said.
She also gave an interesting answer when asked if she would run for president in 2024.
“It’s not about me or making a decision about what I’m going to do,” she said. “I certainly will do whatever it takes to make sure Donald Trump isn’t anywhere close to the Oval Office.”
Cheney recently took part in the American Enterprise Institute’s annual Constitution Day Lecture and spoke about Abraham Lincoln’s “call for a patriotism grounded in reverence to the Constitution” and how it’s “essential in protecting our inheritance of liberty, and why we must resist the rise of a ‘mobocratic spirit.”
This is not a coincidence.
Cheney was soundly defeated during her state’s GOP primary in August by Hageman and used her concession speech to suggest she may run for president in 2024 to “stop” Trump.
Cheney teased a 2024 run when she noted that Abraham Lincoln lost elections for the House and Senate “before he won the most important election of all” by winning the presidency.
Then, she told the TODAY Show she was “thinking about” joining the 2024 Republican presidential race.
“That’s a decision that I’m going to make in the coming months, and I’m not going to make any announcements here this morning. But it is something that I am thinking about, and I’ll make a decision in the coming months,” Cheney responded when asked if she had considered a White House bid.
WATCH:
Liz Cheney is joining us live. @SavannahGuthrie is speaking with her about the defeat in the Wyoming Republican primary, her take in the message the voters were sending, and where she goes from here. pic.twitter.com/xrpOMs5fAv
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 17, 2022
Cheney made it clear that her priority moving forward will be to keep Trump out of the White House.
“America cannot remain free if we abandon the truth. The lie that 2020 presidential election was stolen is insidious. It preys on those who love their country,” she said in a final campaign video to Wyoming voters just before her primary defeat. “It is a door Donald Trump opened to manipulate Americans to abandon their principles, to sacrifice their freedom, to justify violence, to ignore the rulings of our courts and the rule of law.”
In recent comments, Cheney appeared to accept defeat as a personal price paid in order to continue her vendetta against Trump.
“I am working hard to earn every single vote,” Cheney said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday” late last month.
However, she continued: “Given the choice between maintaining my seat in the House of Representatives on the one hand or ensuring the survival of our constitutional republic and ensuring the American people know the truth about Donald Trump, I will choose the Constitution and the truth every day of the week and twice on Sunday.”
Immediately after her primary loss, Cheney announced on ABC’s “This Week” that she will likely support Democratic candidates in some races against Republicans.
She also lashed out at the Republican Party, including House Leader Kevin McCarthy.
“I think what we have seen, not just in Wyoming but across the country, is that Donald Trump has betrayed Republican voters. He’s lied to them. Those who support him have lied to them. And they’re using people’s patriotism against them. They’re preying on people’s patriotism,” she claimed.
“This is a great, a special, exceptional nation, and we need leaders who have reverence to our Constitution, are faithful to our Constitution, and will do what’s required to abide by our oath no matter whether it’s politically convenient. Kevin McCarthy does not fit that bill,” she added.
