Consider This from NPR - Where Does Liz Cheney Go From Here?

Episode Date: August 17, 2022

A key primary this week in Wyoming re-affirmed Donald Trump's hold on the Republican party.As expected, Republican Representative Liz Cheney lost her race in a landslide, defeated by attorney Harriet Hageman, a Trump-endorsed political newcomer. Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, came to office five years ago as a Republican darling. But everything shifted when she voted to impeach Trump after the January 6th insurrection. She then took center stage in the January 6th hearings, speaking out against Republicans that continued to defend Trump's stolen election lie.With Cheney's time in Congress coming to an end, Political journalist Jodi Edna has been thinking about what Cheney might do next — and what it means for the future of the GOP. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kauffman Foundation, providing access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity, regardless of race, gender, or geography. Kauffman.org On January 3, 2017, then Speaker of the House Paul Ryan stood on a crowded stage in front of rows of neatly draped American flags. Yes, sir. This is pretty cool.

He was leading a ceremonial swearing-in and photo-op for members of the 115th Congress and their families. The actual swearing-in ceremony had taken place earlier on the House floor. Speaker Ryan welcomed Liz Cheney with her husband and kids. Yep, I got a wedge in. Can you get the whole clan? And her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, a hawkish and unapologetic politician seen as one of the masterminds of the Iraq War. So I'm here.

Mr. Vice President, can you just come out here a little bit more? Paul Ryan stood amidst essentially Republican royalty. Good? That's great. Thank you, Paul. Just a few weeks later, Donald Trump would also be sworn in as 45th president of the United States. This was Liz Cheney's first time in elected office, and at the time, she was a Trump supporter. Over the course of his presidency, Cheney voted with Trump's agenda on nearly every issue. She was a rising star in the party. They gave her the number three leadership post. There were whispers that she might be put forward for the position of speaker

someday soon. That all changed on January 6th, when a mob attacked the U.S. Capitol building. It was just minutes before Cheney was set to give a speech on the House floor imploring members of Congress to certify the 2020 election results. For Cheney and many other members of Congress, including some Republicans, the insurrection was a step too far. In the hours after the attack, she came out directly linking President Trump to the violence. That was on Fox News. But as other Republican lawmakers quieted their criticism of Trump in the days and weeks that followed, Cheney dug in.

And it cost her. In May of last year, House Republicans voted to remove her from House leadership. Here's part of what she said after that decision. Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar. I will not participate in that. I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president's crusade to undermine our democracy. And still Cheney didn't back down. I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office.

The night Cheney was essentially exiled by her party, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi put out a statement calling her a leader of great courage, patriotism, and integrity. It was here that Liz Cheney started to make a dramatic political shift, from a Republican poster child to a left-wing darling. A shift that only solidified as she took center stage at one of the most watched TV events this year, the January 6th hearings.

Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible. There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain. So it's not surprising that this week she was defeated in Tuesday's Republican primary in Wyoming. She lost by nearly 40 points to a relative political unknown, an attorney named Harriet Hageman who had Trump's

endorsement. Which means now Liz Cheney is on her way out of a job. Consider this, Tuesday's defeat might mark the end of her time in Congress, but Liz Cheney's political star has never shown brighter. From NPR, I'm Ari Shapiro. Send, spend, or receive money internationally and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the Wise app today or visit wise.com. T's and C's apply. It's Consider This from NPR. If you're wondering how much of a sway former President Trump is having on this year's primaries, you could look at Wisconsin. I'm Tim Michaels. The radical left, they're destroying everything we love about America. Too many establishment Republicans, they're along for the ride.

Tim Michaels handily won the Republican nomination for governor there in just four months after entering the race late. Michaels was endorsed by Trump, and he also spent millions of his own money on a blitz of campaign ads. The self-made businessman who doesn't give a rip about the special interests or their money. Where he made the most of that endorsement. I'd like to thank President Trump for his support, for his endorsement. It was a tremendous validation of our meteoric rise in this campaign. And it's not just Wisconsin.

Trump has backed more than 200 in this campaign. And it's not just Wisconsin. Trump has backed more than 200 Republicans this year. And while some have lost, many have won, like Senate candidates J.D. Vance in Ohio or Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania. The candidates Trump backed swept Arizona, an important swing state. Last year, 10 Republicans voted to impeach Trump after the insurrection, and only two will be in a general election this fall. Which brings us back to this Tuesday in Wyoming, arguably the reddest state in the country. But I did not do this on my own. Obviously, we're all very grateful to President Trump. Harriet Hageman thanked her supporter, Donald Trump.

His clear and unwavering support from the very beginning propelled us to victory tonight. Just to put Cheney's loss into perspective, in 2016, she won the nomination by a whopping 17-point margin. Acknowledging her defeat this time, Cheney said she's not done. I call her to concede the race. This primary election is over. But now the real work begins. She said she has millions left over from her campaign and she plans to establish a political organization to continue her mission to stop Trump from ever becoming president again.

Are you thinking about running for president? And in a Wednesday morning interview on the Today Show, she didn't rule out a run for president herself in 2024. I'm not going to make any announcements here this morning, but it is something that I'm thinking about and I'll make a decision in the coming months. So what does this mean for the future of Liz Cheney and the GOP? This is a woman on a mission.

Political journalist Jodi Enda has been thinking and writing GOP. This is a woman on a mission. Political journalist Jodi Enda has been thinking and writing about this. She just published an op-ed about Cheney's future on CNN.com. Her mission is to make sure democracy does not die on our watch. When I spoke with Enda, she started by reminding us of Cheney's political leanings. Well, Liz Cheney was a conservative's conservative she voted with donald trump 93 percent of the time she only has voted with president biden 18 percent of the time she's opposed to abortion rights she's a very strong supporter of gun rights she voted against strengthening the Voting Rights Act. She voted against reforming the police in the wake of George Floyd's murder. And like so many of her Republican colleagues,

she wanted to repeal Obamacare. So she comes from the right wing, the conservative wing of the Republican Party, much as her father, Dick Cheney, did. And this is the first time she's really broken away from that mold. And yet that one break caused her to lose her race by nearly 40 points to a relative political unknown who had Trump's support. The former president wrote on his platform Truth Social that Cheney can, quote, finally disappear into the depths of political oblivion. But I take it most don't see that as likely to happen. How do you view her political future? Well, that would be in his dream.

Her dream is to make sure that Donald Trump never gets anywhere near the Oval Office again. And she seems determined to make that happen. But she can clearly do that as head of a think tank, as the leader of a political action committee. Can she do that as head of a think tank, as the leader of a political action committee. Can she do that as a politician herself if she does not have the strong support and backing of a political party? As you point out, she is one of the most conservative members of the House. She's not about to run for office as a Democrat, and the Republicans have all but disavowed her.

Right. She's unlikely to win the Republican nomination, which is the first step that she would need to do to win the presidency. However, she could be a thorn in President Trump's side. Imagine for a moment if she's on the debate stage next to Trump. She's an excellent speaker. She has the facts on her side about the election, and he's easily flappable. Does that mean that she could win the nomination or the presidency? Highly unlikely. But she certainly could use that platform to try to knock him off his game. So if I understand what you're saying, it sounds like you believe she has a future in politics, if not a future as a politician per se. Oh, for sure. She said in her concession speech last night, freedom must not, cannot, will not die here. If we do not condemn the conspiracies and the lies, if we do not hold those responsible to account, we will be excusing this conduct and it will become a feature of all elections.

America will never be the same. So she might not be a candidate, but she's certainly going to be a very high-profile voice in our nation's conversation. A leader needs followers. Who is her base? That's a very good question. Her base for the fight against Trump are anti-Trump Republicans, Democrats, and independents who don't want to see him run again. But right now, she is the darling of Democrats. She's a darling of people who don't want Trump in office again. And they will support her in her effort to block him from running or winning again.

Let's talk more broadly about what last night's primaries say about the state of the Republican Party right now. After the insurrection, 10 House Republicans voted to impeach Trump, and only two of the 10 are going to be on the general election ballot in the fall. What does that say about the state of the GOP? Yeah, it's interesting, Ari, that the least populous state really is showing us what is happening to the Republican Party. This is Trump's party now. And no matter what people say about conservative values and policies, none of that matters if candidates are not loyal to Donald Trump. The people who either lost their primaries or who chose not to run again in the face of Trump-endorsed candidates are just as conservative as any Republicans are, as Liz Cheney is,

and in fact, probably more conservative in many ways than Donald Trump is. That has nothing to do with the politics of the Republican Party anymore. It's a loyalty test to Donald Trump. And especially within Republican primaries where the most conservative members of the base vote, that's what matters. Political journalist Jodi Enda is also a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a left-of-center think tank. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Ari Shapiro.