Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) used her concession speech to debunk Donald Trump’s new big lie that the FBI planted evidence against him.
Video of Cheney:
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Cheney said:
Our nation is young in the history of mankind, and yet we’re the oldest democracy in the world. Our survival is not guaranteed. History has shown us over and over again how poisonous lies destroyed three nations. Over the last several months, in the January 6 hearings, the American people have watched dozens of Republicans, including the most senior officials working for President Trump in the White House, the Justice Department, and on his campaign—people who served President Trump loyally—testify that they all told him the election was not stolen or rigged and there was no massive fraud. That’s why President Trump and others invent excuses, pretexts for people not to watch the hearings at all. But no citizen of this republic is a bystander. All of us have an obligation to understand what actually happened. We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.
To believe Donald Trump’s election lies, you must believe that dozens of federal and state courts who ruled against him, including many judges he appointed, were all corrupted and biased, that all manner of crazy conspiracy theories stole our election from us and that Donald Trump actually remains president today. As of last week, you must also believe that 30 career FBI agents, who have spent their lives working to serve our country, abandoned their honor and their oath and went to Mar-a-Lago, not to perform a lawful search or address a national security threat, but instead with a secret plan to plant fake incriminating documents in the boxes they seized. This is yet another insidious lie.
Donald Trump knows that voicing these conspiracies will provoke violence and threats of violence. This happened on January 6, and it’s now happening again.
Cheney could have used the national platform of her concession speech to talk about herself. She could have been like most Republicans who lose an election these days and said the election was stolen.
Instead, she used her speech to call out Trump’s lies and argue for democracy, Liz Cheney’s speech is a warning that Republicans are not only destroying themselves. They are also destroying the world’s leading democracy.
It is possible to disagree with someone on 99.9% of the issues, but agree with them on one. Liz Cheney voted with Trump 93% of the time. She is no Democrat, but the one main issue where she disagrees with Trump is democracy, and that is something that every American who hasn’t been brainwashed by Trump should agree on.
Mr. Easley is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association