Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) presiding over a hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the ... [+]
The month of October has seen Rep. Liz Cheney visit several major universities, where she’s talked with students and faculty about threats to American democracy, the work of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the nation’s Capitol, and the current state of the Republican Party under the thumb of Donald Trump.
There’s no doubt that Liz Cheney has become one of this fall’s most sought-after campus speakers. But perhaps the Cheney-goes-back-to-college tour is also something of a test - a warm-up to what might eventually be a run by the three-term congresswoman from Wyoming for the presidency in 2024.
Cheney, perhaps the most outspoken Republican critic of former President Donald Trump, was one of only ten House Republicans who voted to impeach him for his role in the January 6 Capital riot. While she has talked about social issues as well, Cheney’s emphasis at each campus stop has been to address the nature of true patriotism, the dangers of election deniers like Trump, the increasing threat of disinformation to our national security, and the duties of citizenship that individual Americans bear for maintaining our democracy.
So far Cheney’s campus tour has included Arizona State University, Notre Dame University, Syracuse University, and just this last week she went to Harvard.
Her message has been much the same at all the campuses: American democracy is fragile and in grave trouble from political extremists, the Republican party has been taken over by Trump sycophants, and protecting our freedoms and our elections is the responsibility of every American.
On October 3, Cheney spoke with Syracuse University Provost Gretchen Ritter about the responsibilities of citizenship and urged students to become engaged in civil service. You can hear the entire conversation here.
Cheney directly addressed her vote to impeach Trump for his role in inciting the January 6 insurrection and, in her words, going to “war with the rule of law.” "Donald Trump sending a mob he knew was angry, and he knew was armed to the capitol in an attempt to stop the counting of electoral votes is so clearly indefensible that it is inexplicable to me that so many in my party are defending it," she said.
At an October 5 event organized by the McCain Institute at Arizona State University (ASU), Cheney, who co-chairs the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack, criticized Republican candidate for Arizona Governor Kari Lake and Republican candidate for Secretary of State Mark Finchem for saying they will only honor the outcome of an election if they agree with it. She added that if she lived in the state, she’d vote for their Democrat opponents.
Even after multiple claims of election fraud were disproven and rejected by the courts, it didn’t matter to Lake and Finchem, Cheney told her ASU audience. “And if you care about democracy, and you care about the survival of our republic, then you need to understand, we all have to understand, that we cannot give people power who have told us that they will not honor elections.”
During her October 14 address at Notre Dame University, Cheney spoke about the importance of the peaceful transfer of power. “If you go back and you look at the inaugural addresses of so many of our presidents, you’ll see they talk about this peaceful transfer of power. Reagan said it was quote nothing short of a miracle. Kennedy said it was a celebration of freedom, and it is something that binds us together as Americans. It is a miracle, that peaceful transfer of power that has been honored by every American President until Donald Trump.”
“And I looked at my sons and I thought to myself, are they going to be the generation that no longer can count on that? And I determined then, I’m determined now, as long as I can, in every way possible, I’m going to make sure that this is not the case,” Cheney added.
Last Tuesday, Cheney spoke at an Institute of Politics forum at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, which you can listen to here. During that event, she discussed the work of the the January 6 Committee. “I’m very proud of the work that we’ve done and of my fellow members of that committee,” she said. “I think it’s probably the most important thing I’ve ever done professionally, and absolutely crucial to the functioning of our democracy going forward.”
She also stressed another theme that’s been prominent in her other campus talks - the importance of individuals taking responsibility for ensuring the integrity of government and the political process. “Our institutions don’t defend themselves,” according to Cheney. “Jan. 6 could’ve been far worse if people in positions of authority hadn’t stood up.”
“None of us can be a bystander. We need every one of you. We need you involved and engaged. There’s no more important thing you could be doing than helping to make sure that we right this ship of our democracy,” Cheney added.
After losing her primary in August by a 37-point margin to Trump-backed challenger Harriet Hageman, Cheney said she was contemplating a 2024 presidential bid as part of her stated intent to do whatever it took to deny Donald Trump being elected president again.
Interviewed by NBC the day after the primary, Cheney said Trump was “a very grave threat and risk to our republic,” and that defeating him would require “a broad and united front of Republicans, Democrats and independents — and that’s what I intend to be part of.” While she has declined to say if she would run for president, she acknowledged that it was “something that I’m thinking about.”
The campus audiences offer an unusual opportunity to Cheney to think about it some more and also to test her appeal in settings where much of the audience likely does not share her rock-ribbed conservative political positions. While many independents, moderates and even liberals have cheered Cheney’s crusade against Trump, a major question remains - can she attract sufficient Republican support in the primaries to peel enough votes away from Trump to throw the nomination to someone else. Most Republican insiders remain skeptical, dismissing Cheney’s possible run as a quixotic longshot.
Could admiration for Cheney’s outspoken criticisms of Trump enable her to win votes from her party’s principled conservatives and never-Trumpers? Will she be able to cobble together a coalition of conscience that would restore democratic values to the Republican Party? Might she decide to run as an independent in the general election in order to syphon away votes from Trump? The college lecture circuit just might give Cheney some answers.
As she contemplates her next steps, Liz Cheney can continue to use her campus appearances to deliver and refine the messages she believes America needs to hear. And that tour may not be over. Cheney gave the 2022 Ulysses and Marguerite Schwartz Memorial Lecture on October 24th at the University of Chicago Law School, where she received her law degree in 1996.
