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Liz Cheney spoke at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in sunny California last night, and because this is the bonkers world we live in, we have to treat that like a good thing and an inspiring thing. And the thing is, it was! It was good and inspiring and she stood up for America and we still have whiplash from all of this, to be honest.
Of course, we come to this with our tongues planted much more firmly in cheek than perhaps Rep. Cheney would prefer, as she was speaking at soaring lengths about the Republican party making a choice whether it was going to get back in the American lane or veer full-stop into fascism. We’d argue that bird has flown the coop straight into the hands Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban and the gaping, festering holes in Tucker Carlson’s white nationalist soul.
But it was a cool speech!
Here’s the video:
As Politico Playbook notes, Cheney’s speech was part of the Reagan Library’s “Time for Choosing Speaker Series,” where Republicans are speaking to “address critical questions facing the future of the Republican Party.” What kind of luminaries have participated in this exercise? Such mental wizards as Kristi Noem and Mike Pompeo and, um, Ben Sasse! And Mike Pence! And so many more!
To be fair, the Venn diagram of the Republican brain trust is mostly halfwits, demagogues and religious fascists, so it’s not like we’re going to run into a bunch of “Jeopardy!” champs here.
Playbook does note that Donald Trump has not been invited to participate. The library says it’s not including former presidents in this series. Whatever.
But on to that soaring speech!
“At this moment, we are confronting a domestic threat that we have never faced before. And that is a former president who is attempting to unravel the foundations of our Constitutional Republic. And he is aided by Republican leaders and elected officials who have made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man.
Enemies foreign and domestic, but mostly domestic right now, ayup, sounds right.
“Now, some in my party are embracing former President Trump. And even after all we’ve seen, they’re enabling his lies. Many others are urging that we not confront Donald Trump, that we look away. And that is certainly the easier path. One need only look at the threats that are facing the witnesses who’ve come before the Jan. 6 committee to understand the nature and the magnitude of that threat.
There she is mentioning the witness tampering again, just like she did at the end of the Cassidy Hutchinson hearing, which leads us to believe the Committee has a lot of evidence on that.
“But to argue that the threat posed by Donald Trump can be ignored is to cast aside the responsibility that every citizen — every one of us — bears to perpetuate the Republic. We must not do that, and we cannot do that.”
Again, she was speaking to a group of Republicans in the year 2022. That’s not nothing.
And she didn’t hold her fire at them either. Yes, that quote above has her saying words about “enabling his lies,” but elsewhere in the speech she called Republicans “willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man,” and said “Republicans cannot be loyal to Donald Trump and to the Constitution.”
She also summarized what her January 6 Committee has proven so far. We borrowed this portion of the transcript from Charlie Sykes so all the errors are his:
As we have shown, Donald Trump attempted to overturn the presidential election. He attempted to stay in office and to prevent the peaceful transfer of presidential power.
He summoned a mob to Washington.
He knew they were armed on January 6th.
He knew they were angry, and he directed the violent mob to march on the capital in order to delay or prevent completely the counting of electoral votes.
He attempted to go there with them. And when the violence was underway, he refused to take action to tell the rioters to leave.
Instead, he incited further violence by tweeting that the vice president, Mike Pence, was a coward. He said, quote, Mike deserves it. And he didn’t want to do anything in response to the “Hang Mike Pence” chants.
It’s undeniable. It’s also painful for Republicans to accept.
It was just after that when she said Republicans can’t be loyal to both the Constitution and Trump.
And they clapped at her, in the good way!
Of course, the Los Angeles Timesdoes note that “full capacity crowd skewed more Democratic than usual, and many attendees said they were inspired to come to the speech after her performances on the Jan. 6 panel.” So it’s possible the true headline here is “Democrats Woo-Girl-Ing At Liz Cheney Again, ZZZZZZZZZ.”
But hey, sure, fine, we live in this bonkers time when lambs lie down with Cheneys and a little child shall lead them, or however the Bible goes. And though she criticized Democrats here and there, she also said:
“One of my Democratic colleagues said to me recently that he looked forward to the day when he and I could disagree again,” she said to laughs. “And believe me, I share that sentiment.”
Kum-ba-yah or whatever, Jesus Christ, this country is in a really shitty place when this excites us.
[Politico Playbook / Los Angeles Times / The Bulwark]
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