Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) doubled down on her denunciation of former President Donald Trump over his peddling of claims that the 2020 election was illegitimate, sounding the alarm that there could be a future “effort to steal a presidential election” in a recent op-ed.
Ripping Trump for championing an “illegal” and unconstitutional plot to overturn the 2020 election, Cheney warned that Congress must shore up its election procedures and laid out four steps to help stamp out loopholes and other legal provisions that Trump and his allies sought to exploit.
“Evidence has demonstrated Mr. Trump was fully informed that his plans to overturn the election were illegal,” Cheney declared in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal. “Mr. Trump continues to make intentionally false election-fraud allegations, claiming that he should be reinstalled as president.”
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“Current candidates for key offices — who could themselves try to change the outcome of future elections — also embrace those lies and other groundless conspiracy theories,” she added. “This raises the prospect of another effort to steal a presidential election, perhaps with another attempt to corrupt Congress’s proceeding to tally electoral votes.”
Cheney has long lashed out at Trump and his acolytes for trafficking in election fraud claims that she insists have been thoroughly debunked. Trump has contended that the 2020 election was “rigged” and “stolen” from him.
She has drawn ire from her fellow Republicans for her becoming the vice chairwoman of the Jan. 6 committee and one of Trump’s most vocal adversaries in Congress. Now, she is calling for action, such as tinkering with the Electoral Count Act and other laws that Trump sought to exploit.
First, she wants to clarify that the vice president has no authority “to reject official state electoral slates” — something that Trump unsuccessfully prodded then-Vice President Mike Pence to do after his loss. Second, she wants to narrow the grounds for members of Congress to object to election certifications.
Third, she wants to enable presidential contenders to sue states to “ensure that Congress receives the state’s lawful certificate” to stave off the prospect of governors stymieing “lawful results from being transmitted.” And lastly, she wants it clarified in federal law that “rules governing an election can’t change after the election has occurred.”
Cheney was a political scion who quickly rose through the ranks and became the No. 3 Republican in the House as the chairwoman of the House Republican Conference. However, he political fortunes crumbled after she began speaking out forcefully against Trump. A political mutiny forced her from the post last year.
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She subsequently lost her reelection bid for Congress, marking the biggest political scalp Trump won during the midterm election cycle. Most House Republicans like Cheney, who voted to impeach Trump for his actions and lack thereof on Jan. 6, have either lost their GOP primaries or opted not to vie for reelection.
The Jan. 6 committee has hosted nine public hearings to date and plans to hold its next one on Sept. 28. Republicans have signaled that they will scrap or dramatically reconfigure the panel should they recapture Congress in the midterm elections.
