Liz Cheney just drove a stake into the heart of Trumpism

| 2:00 pm EDT May 4, 2021
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Liz Cheney is taking no crap from other Republicans. According to the Washington Post, Cheney pushed back on Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was “the big lie.” He is obviously confused. The big lie was his repeated, erroneous claim that he won the election, the same lie that has led state Republicans to enact suppressive voter laws that make it more difficult for people to vote. They all use the same line as their excuse: “We are making it easier to vote and harder to cheat,” even though no one cheated. Instead of buying into this nonsense, Cheney is fighting back. She tweeted: “The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their backs on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.” As you might imagine this is not going over well with Republicans.

Standing at the front of the line to criticize Cheney is Kevin McCarthy. Though he initially backed Cheney’s leadership role, he now believes her criticisms are “not productive.” McCarthy is merely lining himself up to go against her should her leadership role be questioned again. According to Politico, there is “a coordinated effort by McCarthy” to do just that. Politico reported that McCarthy has not appeared with Cheney recently and declined to give her the moderator role at the recent Republican retreat. Politico also intimates that Jim Banks (R-IN) has designs on Cheney’s role and that he and McCarthy have been extremely friendly lately. Could McCarthy be trying to set up Cheney and replace her with his new BFF? Anything is possible when McCarthy is involved.

Republicans are clueless. Instead of coming up with some type of plausible plan for reelection, they are attacking each other. The big lie is not going to get them where they want to be, and they have no alternate plans. They need to be trying to find some way to serve the American people. While McCarthy claims that Cheney needs to “focus on policy,” she is one of the few Republicans who does discuss policy. All McCarthy is doing is putting the division in his party in plain view, which will hurt them in their quest to retake Congress in 2022. They need to come up with some policy — which Cheney does — and stop their infighting. Otherwise, they will continue to sit on the outside looking in.

Instead of griping about Cheney being outspoken, they need to look at why she is so outspoken. It is not as if she runs around, babbling about Trump all the time. When, however, she is asked by the press, she answers truthfully. Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH) was quoted by the Hill with his response to Cheney: “If a prerequisite for leading our conference is continuing to lie to our voters, then Liz is not the best fit. Liz isn’t going to lie to people.” One would hope that the people appreciate her unwillingness to lie. Instead of berating her, Republicans would be better off trying to emulate her.