WASHINGTON — Republican Rep. Liz Cheney said former President Donald Trump and his loyalists are undermining democracy and risk inciting more violence by persisting in their false claim of a fraudulent 2020 election.
On the eve of a vote by her fellow Republicans that is all but certain to remove her from a party leadership post, Cheney appeared on the House floor Tuesday night to drive home her message that those who refuse to accept the election results affirmed by officials from both parties and the courts “are at war with the Constitution.”
“Today, we face a threat America has never seen before. A former president who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol, in an effort to steal the election, has resumed his aggressive efforts to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him,” Cheney said.
“I will not sit back and watch in silence,” she added. “We must speak the truth. Our election was not stolen.”
The Wednesday morning vote by Republican House members will be done by secret ballot.
Cheney, who is from Wyoming and is the No. 3 House Republican, has become increasingly isolated in her party for her persistent rebuttals to Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy has said that’s become a distraction for Republicans and backs replacing her as Republican conference chair with New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Trump loyalist.
The former president, meanwhile, has kept up a drumbeat of attacks on Cheney.
“The House GOP has a massive opportunity to upgrade this week from warmonger Liz Cheney to gifted communicator Elise Stefanik,” Trump said in a statement released Monday.
