By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
HANOVER – Former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, urged New Hampshire voters to “speak for us all” in the first-in-the-nation primary Jan. 23 and tell the world that we “do not bend, we do not break and we do not yield in defense of our freedom.”
Speaking at Dartmouth College’s Democracy Summit Friday, Cheney said it breaks her heart that “a culture of corruption has overtaken Republicans in Congress” and that while she does not agree with many of the policies of Democratic President Joe Biden, the nation can survive policy mistakes but “we cannot recover from a president willing to torch the Constitution.”
Trump is running for a second term and is seeking the Republican nomination while Biden is also seeing another term.
Nationally, Trump is leading in the polls for his party’s nomination though gaining in those same polls is former U.N. Ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who has been endorsed by New Hampshire’s Republican Gov. Chris Sununu.
Cheney did not endorse a candidate during her remarks, but she wanted fellow conservatives to know “a critical fact. What President Trump did was an assault on the foundations of our Constitutional republic.”
Trump is the only president in history who has not protected the Constitution “and sent an armed and angry mob to the Capitol to attempt, corruptly, to stop the official proceedings to count electoral votes. And then watched on television for hours as the mob attacked and he refused to tell them to go home,” even after being informed a civilian had been shot three years ago.
Cheney said as a nation we are at a point where Republicans in Congress, who line up to endorse Trump and show cowardice “cannot be relied upon to protect our Constitution.”
And now, she said, Trump is attempting to weaponize the judiciary.
She said his efforts to delay his trials, particularly the one where he faces criminal charges for his actions on Jan. 6, is an attempt to suppress the evidence to prevent the American people from seeing evidence of his actions before they head to the polls.
Cheney lost re-election to Harriet Hageman, garnering less than 30 percent of the vote after being censured in 2022 by the Republicans for her actions as a vice chair of the select committee on the Jan. 6 attacks, her support for a second impeachment of Trump for his actions Jan. 6.
The daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, Cheney served the at-large seat from Wyoming from 2017 to 2023 and rose to be the third highest ranking Republican before she became a national critic of Trump, particularly for his actions on Jan. 6, 2021.
Cheney has also said in the past that she may someday be interested in running for president but is now in academia.
She told the packed crowd at Dartmouth that she recalled President George Bush’s remarks from the Oval Office the night of 9/11 and thinks often about how he said terrorists can strike at the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot ever affect the foundations of our democracy.
But she said the challenges we face today with Trump running for another term are just that foundational threat.
“…a former president who attempted to seize power does threaten the very foundation of our democracy. And that is what’s at stake,” Cheney said.
For New Hampshire, she said, there is a very clear answer to the question of what Americans can do as a nation to address these threats.
“Because in a little over two weeks when you in New Hampshire go to the polls, the world will be watching. And so, New Hampshire, I ask you this. Speak for us all. Tell the world who we are with your vote. Tell them that we are a good and a great nation. Tell them we are the inheritors and the guarantors of American freedom. Tell them that we will defend our freedom and our republic.
“Tell the world that we are courageous people and that we are a compassionate people…show the world that we will defeat the plague of cowardice sweeping the Republican party,” Cheney said.
She began her remarks recalling the Jan. 6, 2021 day and how U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster, D-NH, a Dartmouth graduate who was present, told her during the siege that her father would be very proud of her for her leadership in ensuring that the transfer of power was completed that day.
A link to Cheney’s full remarks at Dartmouth are here https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2024/01/liz-cheney-speaks-dartmouth