Rep. Liz Cheney Calls Trump A ‘Continuing Danger,’ Urges Unity Against Him

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), newly ousted from her role as the third-ranking House Republican over her condemnation of Donald Trump, doubled down on her reproof of the former president on Sunday, calling him a “continuing danger” to democracy and urging unity in moving her party beyond him.

“He’s causing people to believe that they can’t count on our electoral process to actually convey the will of the people,” she said of his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election in an interview with “Fox News Sunday.” “We have to be a nation of laws. If you continue to reject, if you work against the rulings of our courts, then you really are at war with the Constitution. And he is a continuing danger to our system.”

Cheney was replaced on Friday as the House Republican Conference chair after refusing to support Trump’s continuing claims that his reelection was stolen from him. She was also one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection.

In an interview with ABC News’ “This Week,” recorded Friday, Cheney said only a small number of her GOP colleagues actually believe the election was stolen from Trump and that more of them would have publicly supported her if not for fear of their own safety.

“We now live in a country where members’ votes are affected because they’re worried about their security, they’re worried about threats on their lives,” she said, while also calling some of her colleagues’ dismissal of the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol “indefensible.”

“It’s disgraceful and despicable,” she said, while specifically mentioning Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) recently downplaying the riot, which left five people dead, as something resembling “a normal tourist visit.”

“I won’t be part of whitewashing what happened on Jan. 6. Nobody should be a part of it and people ought to be held accountable,” she said, while calling Trump’s staunch political supporters ― including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and her GOP chair replacement Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) ― complicit in his lies. 

“I think that there are some things that have to be bigger than party, that have to be bigger than partisanship. Our oath to the Constitution is one of those,” she told Fox News’ Chris Wallace. “What’s happening right now with Donald Trump and his continued attacks on the Constitution and the rule of law is dangerous and we all have an obligation to stand up against that.”

For this reason, Cheney said, she regrets having voted for him in 2020 and will do everything she can to prevent him from getting near the Oval Office again. She declined to say whether that may include running in the next presidential election herself.