A day after Iowa's caucuses, former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney said Donald Trump appears the favorite for the GOP nomination. But the Wyoming Republican said the results signaled more than that.
"If you look at the results last night in Iowa, it's clear that he prevailed," she said. "It's also clear that just as many of the people who showed up to caucus voted for other candidates, and I think it's significant that he only got something like 50% of the Iowa voters who showed up to caucus, which obviously was enough to prevail but is not necessarily a very strong showing."
Cheney spoke to press ahead of a speech in Sarasota as part of the Ringling College Library Association's Town Hall lecture series.
There to promote her book, Oath and Honor, she discussed her anger at Trump over his continued denial of his 2020 election loss, as well as disappointment at Republican colleagues in Congress who abetted an attempt to overthrow the election.
She noted that even before U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson emerged as House Speaker, she devoted a number of pages in her book to the Louisiana Republican's legal maneuvering to challenge the election. Johnson was an architect of a court filing signed by most Republicans in the House questioning the constitutionality of the election.
"I have real concerns about Mike's willingness and ability, willingness to do things that he knows are wrong, and I talked at length in my book," she said.
"He's a dangerous player in all of this as well. And I think the fact that, just within the last 10 days or so, he's been unwilling to say that Joe Biden won the 2020 election, I think what it's important for people to really be focused on as they go to vote across the country is the extent to which House Republicans are saying that they believe they have the authority to throw out the votes of millions of Americans."
In her speech, she alluded to another close election, when George W. Bush, with her father Dick Cheney as his running mate, won the 2000 presidency only after a lengthy recount of Florida's vote. She praised Democrat Al Gore's gracious concession speech following a defeat at the U.S. Supreme Court pushing for a recount to continue.
That stands in contrast to Trump's refusal to participate in a peaceful transfer of power, even of handing over nuclear codes.
She devoted much of her speech to warning Trump posed a continued threat to democracy, but only because his supporters aid and enable him. Speaking in the county where former Trump National Security Advisor Mike Flynn calls home, she called the Venice Republican a specific threat to democracy.
"Go back and look at an interview that Mike Flynn gave on December 18 of 2020 in which he said, with all seriousness, that Donald Trump should deploy the military to see voting machines and to attempt to rerun the election in swing states," she said. "Donald Trump has said he thinks Mike Flynn would be a great National Security Adviser."
She also said some individuals in Congress can't be trusted to be a bulwark against any illegal activity by Trump.
"The Republicans in the Senate will not stand up to him," she said. "Marco Rubio, who just endorsed him, will not stand up."
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