Liz Cheney reveals she is considering third-party presidential bid: ‘Whatever it takes’
December 05, 2023 07:51 AM
Former Republican Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney said she is contemplating a third-party presidential run, warning of the dangers that would come from former President Donald Trump serving as president next year for a second term.
Speaking to the Washington Post on Monday while promoting her new book, Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning, Cheney said she would not have thought about a third-party run several years ago but feels the former president’s presidential bid threatens democracy.
“I happen to think democracy is at risk at home, obviously, as a result of Donald Trump’s continued grip on the Republican Party, and I think democracy is at risk internationally as well,” Cheney said.
Cheney, once a rising star in the Republican Party before becoming one of Trump’s most outspoken GOP critics, said she would make a final decision within the next few months.
“We face threats that could be existential to the United States, and we need a candidate who is going to be able to deal with and address and confront all of those challenges,” Cheney said. “That will all be part of my calculation as we go into the early months of 2024.”
Cheney served as vice chairwoman of the House Jan. 6 committee and was one of 10 House Republicans who joined all Democrats in voting to impeach Trump for a second time following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. She was ousted in the Wyoming primary last year by a Trump-backed challenger, now-Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY).
She has not ruled out voting for President Joe Biden if he is the 2024 Democratic nominee, telling CBS on Sunday that a Republican congressional majority with Trump in the White House would pose a threat to democracy.
Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, has been on a string of media appearances, further fueling speculation about a presidential bid.
“I don’t even want to imagine a situation where he has won,” Cheney said on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show. “I think we have to do everything we can to stop him in terms of, again, the kind of things we have been working on, working in a nonpartisan fashion.”
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Cheney emphasized Republicans, Democrats, and independents need to “work together” and “vote together” to “make clear that Donald Trump is not an acceptable alternative.”
“He is not the lesser of two evils,” Cheney said. “He is a completely unfit man for office. He’s already shown us what he would do, and he can never be near the Oval Office again.”