Liz Cheney Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

It should be no surprise to anyone who has read this blog more than three times that, in the Presidential race between Kamala and DonOLD, I’m voting for the South Asian woman who also knows she’s black.

On ABC News’s This Week for Sunday, September 8, 2024, just before the debate, former Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney chose between Kamala and DonOLD. She spoke with ABC’s Jonathan Karl. This is just some of the interview, which I recommend.

CHENEY: Not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris. Donald Trump, if he is re-elected, will be far more dangerous than we have ever seen before. Dick Cheney [her father] will be voting for Kamala Harris.

KARL: The former vice president’s statement endorsing Harris offered an especially harsh view of Donald Trump. “In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again.”

CHENEY: Donald Trump presents a challenge and fundamental threat to the republic. Somebody is willing to use violence to attempt to seize power and stay in power—someone who represents unrecoverable catastrophe. And we must do everything possible to ensure he’s not re-elected.

Harris as Reagan?

CHENEY: I have never viewed this as a policy election. If you look at Vice President Harris’ speech at the Democratic Convention, it is a speech that Ronald Reagan could have given. It’s a speech that George Bush could have given. It’s an embrace and an understanding of the exceptional nature of this great nation. A love of America. A recognition that America is a special place. A recognition that we all have to work together to ensure that.

And you contrast that with what we hear from Donald Trump daily, that America is a failing nation, that America is a laughing stock. The trash-talking of the United States of America is very much part of the message that Donald Trump is pushing.

I think it’s important for people to recognize he’s not a conservative. Embracing global tariffs is fundamentally anti-conservative. It will choke off global trade and likely lead us down the path that we’ve seen before, a depression.

The important thing for people to remember is that he can do it alone. He does not need Congress if he were to be re-elected, to impose those massive tariffs that will kill the American and the global economy.

Kamala’s coalition

CHENEY: I think, from a policy perspective, it is very important to recognize that [Kamala] understands that this election is going to require a coalition of people from across the political spectrum supporting her, and that also necessitates an understanding that you’ve got to govern for all of those people. And on top of all of that, the Republicans have nominated somebody who you know is depraved. So, the choice, in my view, is not a close one.

When you look at national security policy, there are certainly areas where I disagree with the Biden administration. However, regarding fundamental alliances and the importance of NATO, for example, we’ve seen a sea change. We now have a Republican Party that is embracing isolationism, that is embracing Putin.

Nikki voters

KARL: There was a lot of talk during the primaries of the Nikki Haley voters, and some states seemed like even when she stopped running, almost a third of Republican voters were looking for an alternative to Trump and voting for Nikki Haley. She’s now saying she is “on standby” to campaign for Donald Trump to help him get reelected.

She’s also, of course, called him unhinged, unqualified to be president, diminished. What do you make of Nikki Haley’s position on this?

CHENEY: I can’t understand her position on this in any principled way. I think the things she said while running in the primary are true.

And those of us who are conservative, those of us who believe in fidelity to the Constitution, have a responsibility and a duty to recognize that this is not about partisan politics, and the country is going to need to rebuild a true conservative movement when we’re through this election cycle…

But this November, casting a vote for Donald Trump or writing someone in means that you’ve decided in too many instances what so many elected Republicans have made, which is to abandon the Constitution, to tell yourself that this is just simply a partisan choice. That’s not what we’re facing this time around.

No guardrails

CHENEY: It’s personal to me when I listen to fellow Republicans in the past say things to me like, it’s fine, there are guardrails. He can’t do that much damage. It’s just simply not true.

KARL: Well, on those guardrails, we had the Supreme Court declare essentially that a president has immunity for anything that can be in any way defined as an official act. What does it mean to the possibility of a second Trump administration?

CHENEY: Well, it obviously makes the danger even greater. But when you look at what Donald Trump could do with the levers of power, the extent to which he’s already said he will not abide by the rulings of the courts. Our courts can’t enforce their own rulings. If a president won’t abide by the rulings of the courts, the rule of law disintegrates immediately. He’s made clear that he will, for example, pardon the January 6th rioters.