U.S. Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) is not going “gentle into that good night,” as the poet Dylan Thomas wrote:
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at the close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
At age 56 Liz Cheney is far from going quietly from the political stage. Her anticipated loss next Tuesday could be historic, with the most current poll showing her nearly 30 points behind her nearest rival.
Instead, her campaign issued a video on Thursday where Tuesday’s likely Wyoming Republican primary loser said:
America cannot remain free if we abandon the truth. The lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen is insidious. It preys on those who love their country.
It is a door Donald Trump opened to manipulate Americans to abandon their principles, to sacrifice their freedom, to justify violence, to ignore the rulings of our courts and the rule of law.
She lumped her opponent and likely winner of Tuesday’s primary, Harriet Hageman, in with Trump and his many supporters in Wyoming and across the country:
Like many candidates across this country, my opponents in Wyoming have said that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen.
No one who understands our nation’s laws, no one with an honest, honorable, genuine commitment to our Constitution would say that. It is a cancer that threatens our great Republic … nothing in our public life is more important than the preservation of the miracle given to us by God and our Founding Fathers.
She previewed her coming concession speech late last month at Fox News:
I am working hard to earn every single vote.
Given the choice between maintaining my seat in the House of Representatives on the one hand or ensuring the survival of our constitutional republic and ensuring the American people know the truth about Donald Trump, I will choose the Constitution and the truth every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
She is making sure that she offends every Wyoming Republican on her way out the door. Her campaign is running a last-minute series of ads by her father, Dick Cheney, who calls Donald Trump “a coward … a real man wouldn’t lie to his supporters.”
On Thursday she followed up her campaign’s last pre-primary video by chastising Republicans who questioned the legality and necessity of Monday’s raid by the FBI on Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, home. She tweeted:
I have been ashamed to hear members of my party attacking the integrity of the FBI agents involved with the recent Mar-a-Lago search. These are sickening comments that put the lives of patriotic public servants at risk.
She is, as The New American and other reliable media outlets have claimed, running for president in 2024. Jake Tapper of CNN picked up on this after her interview on Sunday. Cheney, when asked about her presidential aspirations, responded: “Our nation stands on the edge of an abyss … we have to elect serious candidates [in 2024].”
Concluded Tapper:
When you hear a politician talking about the country “standing on the edge of an abyss” and the need to elect “serious candidates,” well, it doesn’t take an astrophysicist to figure out what’s going on there.
Helping Cheney along with her concession speech on Tuesday evening is John Harris of Politico. He offered unsolicited excerpts for her consideration, at no charge:
“First of all, to all my friends in Wyoming and around the country, let me assure you I made peace with this moment long ago. This is not the result we wanted, but it is a victory — for everyone who believes that standing up for what’s right, for the Constitution, for the future of our democracy is more important than clinging to power or holding some fancy title.
This fight is not over — it may take many years. For anyone wondering about my own future, let me say this: I will do everything in my power to make sure Donald Trump is never again near the Oval Office.”
Harris also without charge offered a translation of what she would really mean:
I still can’t believe that people in Wyoming — tough, stoical no-BS people — would turn their back on a Cheney in favor of such an obvious fraud. So, no, I’m not exactly at peace.
But, yes, I saw this coming 17 months ago and once I started down the path of confronting Trump there was no turning back.
Why do you think I left so much of the money gushing to me from Dems and Never Trumpers unspent in this primary — it’s the war chest that will keep me relevant on the national stage.
No, I won’t ever be Speaker of the House. But no need to be too coy about it: I do plan to run for president. I’ve already dropped plenty of breadcrumbs, like that ABC interview last month when I hardly denied my interest, and I’ll soon be dropping more.
Does that mean a “kamikaze run” against Trump in 2024? Or a declaration that the Republican Party for now is beyond saving, and therefore I’m leading a third-party movement?
Standby — I’m still working on my options.
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