WASHINGTON (AP) – Liz Cheney’s resounding primary defeat marks the end of an era for the Republican Party and her family legacy, the most high-profile political casualty yet as the party of Lincoln morphs into the party of Trump.
The downfall of the three-term congresswoman, who has made it her mission to ensure Donald Trump never returns to the Oval Office, was strongly foreshadowed earlier this year on the first anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on Capitol Hill.
As the House met for a minute of silence, Cheney, who is leading the investigation into the rebellion as vice chairman of the 6/1 committee, and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, stood almost alone on the Republican side of the House. floor.
Democratic lawmakers streamed in to shake their hands. The Republicans refused to join them.
“Liz Cheney represents the Republican Party as it was. … All of that is gone now,” said Geoff Kabaservice, vice president of political studies at the center-right Niskanen Center.
What’s next for Liz Cheney has yet to be determined.
“Now the real work begins,” she said in an election night concession speech in Wyoming, bringing together the legacies of both Abraham Lincoln and his Civil War-era military and presidential successor, Ulysses Grant, in her anti-Trump campaign .
Cheney could well announce her own bid for the White House — unlikely to win the nomination of a hostile Republican Party, but at least give those opposed to Trump an alternative.
Overnight, he transferred the remaining campaign funds to a new entity: “The Great Task”. This is a quote from The Gettysburg Address.
“I’m going to do whatever it takes to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office,” Cheney said on NBC’s “Today” show early Wednesday. Pressed, she said running for president “is something I’m thinking about and I’ll make a decision in the coming months.”
Whether he’s running or not, her belief that Trump is a danger to democracy is one that runs deep in her family.
But it’s a view that has no home in today’s GOP.
Trump is cleaning up the Republican Party, ridding it of dissenters like Cheney and others who dare defy him, shifting the coast-to-coast landscape of the Democratic Party and the makeup of Congress.
Of the 10 House Republicans, including Cheney, who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill, only two remain up for re-election. The others have bowed out or, like Cheney, been defeated by Trump-backed challengers.
If Republicans gain control of the House and Senate in November’s elections, the new Congress is destined to remake Trump’s image. But his influence may actually cut two ways, winning back the House for Republicans but costing the party the Senate if his candidates fail to build the broad appeal needed for statewide elections.
“It’s just a Donald Trump fever dream party,” said Mark Salter, a former longtime Republican aide to the late Sen. John McCain.
“It’s just Donald Trump’s club.”
For 50 years, the Cheneys have wielded considerable influence in Washington, from the time Dick Cheney first ran for Congress—later elected vice president—to the arrival of his daughter, who was elected in 2016 alongside Trump’s White House victory.
Identified with the hawkish defense wing of the Republican Party, the Cheneys and Presidents Bush represented the cornerstone of the Republican Party in the post-World War II era, when it flourished as the party of small government, low taxes and muscular foreign policy.
Liz Cheney never wavered, selected by her House GOP colleagues to the same position her father held, the No. 3 Republican in the House, the highest-ranking woman.
But the January 6, 2021 attack on Capitol Hill changed all that.
Cheney was unequivocal, blaming the attack on the defeated president and his false claims of voter fraud and a rigged election.
Trump “called this mob, rallied the mob and fanned the flames of this attack,” she said at the time, announcing her impeachment vote.
“There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy initially defended Cheney, but quickly reversed course as Republicans ousted her as party leader. When Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi nominated Cheney to the 1/6 panel, her exile was almost complete.
Trump gloated over Cheney’s loss in the GOP primary Tuesday night, deriding her as “sacrilegious” and “stupid” for arguing that his allegations of a rigged election were false.
Trump had swept into the Cowboy State to rally Harriet Hagman, once a vocal critic of him, but won over Cheney by embracing the former president, backed by McCarthy and other party leaders.
Cheney’s defeat follows that of the last Bush to hold public office, Jeb’s son George P. Bush, who was defeated in the Republican primary for Texas attorney general by Trump-backed Ken Paxton in May .
On Fox News, conservative writer Charlie Kirk called Tuesday’s election a “mass repudiation” of the Bush-Cheney-McCain era.
New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who replaced Cheney in the House GOP leadership and endorsed Hageman, said in a statement that she was glad to see Pelosi’s “puppet” defeated.
Former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson, who served in Congress with Dick Cheney and has known Liz Cheney since childhood, says he can no longer recognize the party he joined, casting his first presidential vote for Dwight Eisenhower.
“What’s happened to our party is the fear of Donald J. Trump,” Simpson said.
Founded in the mid-19th century, the GOP’s core conservative values have morphed in the Trump era into a strain of politics more focused on grievances at home and isolationism abroad.
Those running for Congress include many Republican incumbents who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s election, bolstering Trump’s relentlessly false allegations of a rigged election and fueling the Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill.
And many of the GOP’s new congressional candidates are also opt-outs, according to a Democratic count.
“The House is — should be — the people’s House,” said former Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo of Florida. Instead, he said, “It’s controlled by Mr. Trump.”
Cheney walks alone for days on Capitol Hill, flanked by plainclothes Capitol Police officers guarding her amid an onslaught of violent threats.
Her mission to deny Trump a return to the presidency is evident in her daily schedule, with much of her time devoted to deepening and completing the work of the 6/1 committee.
title: “Cheney S Defeat Marks The End Of An Era For The Gop. Trump S Party Now Klmat”
ShowToc: true
date: “2022-10-26”
author: “Enrique Urbina”
WASHINGTON (AP) – Liz Cheney’s resounding primary defeat marks the end of an era for the Republican Party and her family legacy, the most high-profile political casualty yet as the party of Lincoln morphs into the party of Trump.
The downfall of the three-term congresswoman, who has made it her mission to ensure Donald Trump never returns to the Oval Office, was strongly foreshadowed earlier this year on the first anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on Capitol Hill.
As the House met for a minute of silence, Cheney, who is leading the investigation into the rebellion as vice chairman of the 6/1 committee, and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, stood almost alone on the Republican side of the House. floor.
Democratic lawmakers streamed in to shake their hands. The Republicans refused to join them.
“Liz Cheney represents the Republican Party as it was. … All of that is gone now,” said Geoff Kabaservice, vice president of political studies at the center-right Niskanen Center.
What’s next for Liz Cheney has yet to be determined.
“Now the real work begins,” she said in an election night concession speech in Wyoming, bringing together the legacies of both Abraham Lincoln and his Civil War-era military and presidential successor, Ulysses Grant, in her anti-Trump campaign .
Cheney could well announce her own bid for the White House — unlikely to win the nomination of a hostile Republican Party, but at least give those opposed to Trump an alternative.
Overnight, he transferred the remaining campaign funds to a new entity: “The Great Task”. This is a quote from The Gettysburg Address.
“I’m going to do whatever it takes to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office,” Cheney said on NBC’s “Today” show early Wednesday. Pressed, she said running for president “is something I’m thinking about and I’ll make a decision in the coming months.”
Whether he’s running or not, her belief that Trump is a danger to democracy is one that runs deep in her family.
But it’s a view that has no home in today’s GOP.
Trump is cleaning up the Republican Party, ridding it of dissenters like Cheney and others who dare defy him, shifting the coast-to-coast landscape of the Democratic Party and the makeup of Congress.
Of the 10 House Republicans, including Cheney, who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill, only two remain up for re-election. The others have bowed out or, like Cheney, been defeated by Trump-backed challengers.
If Republicans gain control of the House and Senate in November’s elections, the new Congress is destined to remake Trump’s image. But his influence may actually cut two ways, winning back the House for Republicans but costing the party the Senate if his candidates fail to build the broad appeal needed for statewide elections.
“It’s just a Donald Trump fever dream party,” said Mark Salter, a former longtime Republican aide to the late Sen. John McCain.
“It’s just Donald Trump’s club.”
For 50 years, the Cheneys have wielded considerable influence in Washington, from the time Dick Cheney first ran for Congress—later elected vice president—to the arrival of his daughter, who was elected in 2016 alongside Trump’s White House victory.
Identified with the hawkish defense wing of the Republican Party, the Cheneys and Presidents Bush represented the cornerstone of the Republican Party in the post-World War II era, when it flourished as the party of small government, low taxes and muscular foreign policy.
Liz Cheney never wavered, selected by her House GOP colleagues to the same position her father held, the No. 3 Republican in the House, the highest-ranking woman.
But the January 6, 2021 attack on Capitol Hill changed all that.
Cheney was unequivocal, blaming the attack on the defeated president and his false claims of voter fraud and a rigged election.
Trump “called this mob, rallied the mob and fanned the flames of this attack,” she said at the time, announcing her impeachment vote.
“There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy initially defended Cheney, but quickly reversed course as Republicans ousted her as party leader. When Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi nominated Cheney to the 1/6 panel, her exile was almost complete.
Trump gloated over Cheney’s loss in the GOP primary Tuesday night, deriding her as “sacrilegious” and “stupid” for arguing that his allegations of a rigged election were false.
Trump had swept into the Cowboy State to rally Harriet Hagman, once a vocal critic of him, but won over Cheney by embracing the former president, backed by McCarthy and other party leaders.
Cheney’s defeat follows that of the last Bush to hold public office, Jeb’s son George P. Bush, who was defeated in the Republican primary for Texas attorney general by Trump-backed Ken Paxton in May .
On Fox News, conservative writer Charlie Kirk called Tuesday’s election a “mass repudiation” of the Bush-Cheney-McCain era.
New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who replaced Cheney in the House GOP leadership and endorsed Hageman, said in a statement that she was glad to see Pelosi’s “puppet” defeated.
Former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson, who served in Congress with Dick Cheney and has known Liz Cheney since childhood, says he can no longer recognize the party he joined, casting his first presidential vote for Dwight Eisenhower.
“What’s happened to our party is the fear of Donald J. Trump,” Simpson said.
Founded in the mid-19th century, the GOP’s core conservative values have morphed in the Trump era into a strain of politics more focused on grievances at home and isolationism abroad.
Those running for Congress include many Republican incumbents who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s election, bolstering Trump’s relentlessly false allegations of a rigged election and fueling the Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill.
And many of the GOP’s new congressional candidates are also opt-outs, according to a Democratic count.
“The House is — should be — the people’s House,” said former Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo of Florida. Instead, he said, “It’s controlled by Mr. Trump.”
Cheney walks alone for days on Capitol Hill, flanked by plainclothes Capitol Police officers guarding her amid an onslaught of violent threats.
Her mission to deny Trump a return to the presidency is evident in her daily schedule, with much of her time devoted to deepening and completing the work of the 6/1 committee.
title: “Cheney S Defeat Marks The End Of An Era For The Gop. Trump S Party Now Klmat”
ShowToc: true
date: “2022-12-05”
author: “Pete Parsons”
WASHINGTON (AP) – Liz Cheney’s resounding primary defeat marks the end of an era for the Republican Party and her family legacy, the most high-profile political casualty yet as the party of Lincoln morphs into the party of Trump.
The downfall of the three-term congresswoman, who has made it her mission to ensure Donald Trump never returns to the Oval Office, was strongly foreshadowed earlier this year on the first anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on Capitol Hill.
As the House met for a minute of silence, Cheney, who is leading the investigation into the rebellion as vice chairman of the 6/1 committee, and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, stood almost alone on the Republican side of the House. floor.
Democratic lawmakers streamed in to shake their hands. The Republicans refused to join them.
“Liz Cheney represents the Republican Party as it was. … All of that is gone now,” said Geoff Kabaservice, vice president of political studies at the center-right Niskanen Center.
What’s next for Liz Cheney has yet to be determined.
“Now the real work begins,” she said in an election night concession speech in Wyoming, bringing together the legacies of both Abraham Lincoln and his Civil War-era military and presidential successor, Ulysses Grant, in her anti-Trump campaign .
Cheney could well announce her own bid for the White House — unlikely to win the nomination of a hostile Republican Party, but at least give those opposed to Trump an alternative.
Overnight, he transferred the remaining campaign funds to a new entity: “The Great Task”. This is a quote from The Gettysburg Address.
“I’m going to do whatever it takes to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office,” Cheney said on NBC’s “Today” show early Wednesday. Pressed, she said running for president “is something I’m thinking about and I’ll make a decision in the coming months.”
Whether he’s running or not, her belief that Trump is a danger to democracy is one that runs deep in her family.
But it’s a view that has no home in today’s GOP.
Trump is cleaning up the Republican Party, ridding it of dissenters like Cheney and others who dare defy him, shifting the coast-to-coast landscape of the Democratic Party and the makeup of Congress.
Of the 10 House Republicans, including Cheney, who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill, only two remain up for re-election. The others have bowed out or, like Cheney, been defeated by Trump-backed challengers.
If Republicans gain control of the House and Senate in November’s elections, the new Congress is destined to remake Trump’s image. But his influence may actually cut two ways, winning back the House for Republicans but costing the party the Senate if his candidates fail to build the broad appeal needed for statewide elections.
“It’s just a Donald Trump fever dream party,” said Mark Salter, a former longtime Republican aide to the late Sen. John McCain.
“It’s just Donald Trump’s club.”
For 50 years, the Cheneys have wielded considerable influence in Washington, from the time Dick Cheney first ran for Congress—later elected vice president—to the arrival of his daughter, who was elected in 2016 alongside Trump’s White House victory.
Identified with the hawkish defense wing of the Republican Party, the Cheneys and Presidents Bush represented the cornerstone of the Republican Party in the post-World War II era, when it flourished as the party of small government, low taxes and muscular foreign policy.
Liz Cheney never wavered, selected by her House GOP colleagues to the same position her father held, the No. 3 Republican in the House, the highest-ranking woman.
But the January 6, 2021 attack on Capitol Hill changed all that.
Cheney was unequivocal, blaming the attack on the defeated president and his false claims of voter fraud and a rigged election.
Trump “called this mob, rallied the mob and fanned the flames of this attack,” she said at the time, announcing her impeachment vote.
“There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy initially defended Cheney, but quickly reversed course as Republicans ousted her as party leader. When Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi nominated Cheney to the 1/6 panel, her exile was almost complete.
Trump gloated over Cheney’s loss in the GOP primary Tuesday night, deriding her as “sacrilegious” and “stupid” for arguing that his allegations of a rigged election were false.
Trump had swept into the Cowboy State to rally Harriet Hagman, once a vocal critic of him, but won over Cheney by embracing the former president, backed by McCarthy and other party leaders.
Cheney’s defeat follows that of the last Bush to hold public office, Jeb’s son George P. Bush, who was defeated in the Republican primary for Texas attorney general by Trump-backed Ken Paxton in May .
On Fox News, conservative writer Charlie Kirk called Tuesday’s election a “mass repudiation” of the Bush-Cheney-McCain era.
New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who replaced Cheney in the House GOP leadership and endorsed Hageman, said in a statement that she was glad to see Pelosi’s “puppet” defeated.
Former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson, who served in Congress with Dick Cheney and has known Liz Cheney since childhood, says he can no longer recognize the party he joined, casting his first presidential vote for Dwight Eisenhower.
“What’s happened to our party is the fear of Donald J. Trump,” Simpson said.
Founded in the mid-19th century, the GOP’s core conservative values have morphed in the Trump era into a strain of politics more focused on grievances at home and isolationism abroad.
Those running for Congress include many Republican incumbents who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s election, bolstering Trump’s relentlessly false allegations of a rigged election and fueling the Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill.
And many of the GOP’s new congressional candidates are also opt-outs, according to a Democratic count.
“The House is — should be — the people’s House,” said former Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo of Florida. Instead, he said, “It’s controlled by Mr. Trump.”
Cheney walks alone for days on Capitol Hill, flanked by plainclothes Capitol Police officers guarding her amid an onslaught of violent threats.
Her mission to deny Trump a return to the presidency is evident in her daily schedule, with much of her time devoted to deepening and completing the work of the 6/1 committee.
title: “Cheney S Defeat Marks The End Of An Era For The Gop. Trump S Party Now Klmat”
ShowToc: true
date: “2022-12-01”
author: “Josephine Rutherford”
WASHINGTON (AP) – Liz Cheney’s resounding primary defeat marks the end of an era for the Republican Party and her family legacy, the most high-profile political casualty yet as the party of Lincoln morphs into the party of Trump.
The downfall of the three-term congresswoman, who has made it her mission to ensure Donald Trump never returns to the Oval Office, was strongly foreshadowed earlier this year on the first anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on Capitol Hill.
As the House met for a minute of silence, Cheney, who is leading the investigation into the rebellion as vice chairman of the 6/1 committee, and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, stood almost alone on the Republican side of the House. floor.
Democratic lawmakers streamed in to shake their hands. The Republicans refused to join them.
“Liz Cheney represents the Republican Party as it was. … All of that is gone now,” said Geoff Kabaservice, vice president of political studies at the center-right Niskanen Center.
What’s next for Liz Cheney has yet to be determined.
“Now the real work begins,” she said in an election night concession speech in Wyoming, bringing together the legacies of both Abraham Lincoln and his Civil War-era military and presidential successor, Ulysses Grant, in her anti-Trump campaign .
Cheney could well announce her own bid for the White House — unlikely to win the nomination of a hostile Republican Party, but at least give those opposed to Trump an alternative.
Overnight, he transferred the remaining campaign funds to a new entity: “The Great Task”. This is a quote from The Gettysburg Address.
“I’m going to do whatever it takes to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office,” Cheney said on NBC’s “Today” show early Wednesday. Pressed, she said running for president “is something I’m thinking about and I’ll make a decision in the coming months.”
Whether he’s running or not, her belief that Trump is a danger to democracy is one that runs deep in her family.
But it’s a view that has no home in today’s GOP.
Trump is cleaning up the Republican Party, ridding it of dissenters like Cheney and others who dare defy him, shifting the coast-to-coast landscape of the Democratic Party and the makeup of Congress.
Of the 10 House Republicans, including Cheney, who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill, only two remain up for re-election. The others have bowed out or, like Cheney, been defeated by Trump-backed challengers.
If Republicans gain control of the House and Senate in November’s elections, the new Congress is destined to remake Trump’s image. But his influence may actually cut two ways, winning back the House for Republicans but costing the party the Senate if his candidates fail to build the broad appeal needed for statewide elections.
“It’s just a Donald Trump fever dream party,” said Mark Salter, a former longtime Republican aide to the late Sen. John McCain.
“It’s just Donald Trump’s club.”
For 50 years, the Cheneys have wielded considerable influence in Washington, from the time Dick Cheney first ran for Congress—later elected vice president—to the arrival of his daughter, who was elected in 2016 alongside Trump’s White House victory.
Identified with the hawkish defense wing of the Republican Party, the Cheneys and Presidents Bush represented the cornerstone of the Republican Party in the post-World War II era, when it flourished as the party of small government, low taxes and muscular foreign policy.
Liz Cheney never wavered, selected by her House GOP colleagues to the same position her father held, the No. 3 Republican in the House, the highest-ranking woman.
But the January 6, 2021 attack on Capitol Hill changed all that.
Cheney was unequivocal, blaming the attack on the defeated president and his false claims of voter fraud and a rigged election.
Trump “called this mob, rallied the mob and fanned the flames of this attack,” she said at the time, announcing her impeachment vote.
“There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy initially defended Cheney, but quickly reversed course as Republicans ousted her as party leader. When Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi nominated Cheney to the 1/6 panel, her exile was almost complete.
Trump gloated over Cheney’s loss in the GOP primary Tuesday night, deriding her as “sacrilegious” and “stupid” for arguing that his allegations of a rigged election were false.
Trump had swept into the Cowboy State to rally Harriet Hagman, once a vocal critic of him, but won over Cheney by embracing the former president, backed by McCarthy and other party leaders.
Cheney’s defeat follows that of the last Bush to hold public office, Jeb’s son George P. Bush, who was defeated in the Republican primary for Texas attorney general by Trump-backed Ken Paxton in May .
On Fox News, conservative writer Charlie Kirk called Tuesday’s election a “mass repudiation” of the Bush-Cheney-McCain era.
New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who replaced Cheney in the House GOP leadership and endorsed Hageman, said in a statement that she was glad to see Pelosi’s “puppet” defeated.
Former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson, who served in Congress with Dick Cheney and has known Liz Cheney since childhood, says he can no longer recognize the party he joined, casting his first presidential vote for Dwight Eisenhower.
“What’s happened to our party is the fear of Donald J. Trump,” Simpson said.
Founded in the mid-19th century, the GOP’s core conservative values have morphed in the Trump era into a strain of politics more focused on grievances at home and isolationism abroad.
Those running for Congress include many Republican incumbents who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s election, bolstering Trump’s relentlessly false allegations of a rigged election and fueling the Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill.
And many of the GOP’s new congressional candidates are also opt-outs, according to a Democratic count.
“The House is — should be — the people’s House,” said former Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo of Florida. Instead, he said, “It’s controlled by Mr. Trump.”
Cheney walks alone for days on Capitol Hill, flanked by plainclothes Capitol Police officers guarding her amid an onslaught of violent threats.
Her mission to deny Trump a return to the presidency is evident in her daily schedule, with much of her time devoted to deepening and completing the work of the 6/1 committee.
title: “Cheney S Defeat Marks The End Of An Era For The Gop. Trump S Party Now Klmat”
ShowToc: true
date: “2022-11-04”
author: “Florence Bittner”
WASHINGTON (AP) – Liz Cheney’s resounding primary defeat marks the end of an era for the Republican Party and her family legacy, the most high-profile political casualty yet as the party of Lincoln morphs into the party of Trump.
The downfall of the three-term congresswoman, who has made it her mission to ensure Donald Trump never returns to the Oval Office, was strongly foreshadowed earlier this year on the first anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on Capitol Hill.
As the House met for a minute of silence, Cheney, who is leading the investigation into the rebellion as vice chairman of the 6/1 committee, and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, stood almost alone on the Republican side of the House. floor.
Democratic lawmakers streamed in to shake their hands. The Republicans refused to join them.
“Liz Cheney represents the Republican Party as it was. … All of that is gone now,” said Geoff Kabaservice, vice president of political studies at the center-right Niskanen Center.
What’s next for Liz Cheney has yet to be determined.
“Now the real work begins,” she said in an election night concession speech in Wyoming, bringing together the legacies of both Abraham Lincoln and his Civil War-era military and presidential successor, Ulysses Grant, in her anti-Trump campaign .
Cheney could well announce her own bid for the White House — unlikely to win the nomination of a hostile Republican Party, but at least give those opposed to Trump an alternative.
Overnight, he transferred the remaining campaign funds to a new entity: “The Great Task”. This is a quote from The Gettysburg Address.
“I’m going to do whatever it takes to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office,” Cheney said on NBC’s “Today” show early Wednesday. Pressed, she said running for president “is something I’m thinking about and I’ll make a decision in the coming months.”
Whether he’s running or not, her belief that Trump is a danger to democracy is one that runs deep in her family.
But it’s a view that has no home in today’s GOP.
Trump is cleaning up the Republican Party, ridding it of dissenters like Cheney and others who dare defy him, shifting the coast-to-coast landscape of the Democratic Party and the makeup of Congress.
Of the 10 House Republicans, including Cheney, who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill, only two remain up for re-election. The others have bowed out or, like Cheney, been defeated by Trump-backed challengers.
If Republicans gain control of the House and Senate in November’s elections, the new Congress is destined to remake Trump’s image. But his influence may actually cut two ways, winning back the House for Republicans but costing the party the Senate if his candidates fail to build the broad appeal needed for statewide elections.
“It’s just a Donald Trump fever dream party,” said Mark Salter, a former longtime Republican aide to the late Sen. John McCain.
“It’s just Donald Trump’s club.”
For 50 years, the Cheneys have wielded considerable influence in Washington, from the time Dick Cheney first ran for Congress—later elected vice president—to the arrival of his daughter, who was elected in 2016 alongside Trump’s White House victory.
Identified with the hawkish defense wing of the Republican Party, the Cheneys and Presidents Bush represented the cornerstone of the Republican Party in the post-World War II era, when it flourished as the party of small government, low taxes and muscular foreign policy.
Liz Cheney never wavered, selected by her House GOP colleagues to the same position her father held, the No. 3 Republican in the House, the highest-ranking woman.
But the January 6, 2021 attack on Capitol Hill changed all that.
Cheney was unequivocal, blaming the attack on the defeated president and his false claims of voter fraud and a rigged election.
Trump “called this mob, rallied the mob and fanned the flames of this attack,” she said at the time, announcing her impeachment vote.
“There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy initially defended Cheney, but quickly reversed course as Republicans ousted her as party leader. When Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi nominated Cheney to the 1/6 panel, her exile was almost complete.
Trump gloated over Cheney’s loss in the GOP primary Tuesday night, deriding her as “sacrilegious” and “stupid” for arguing that his allegations of a rigged election were false.
Trump had swept into the Cowboy State to rally Harriet Hagman, once a vocal critic of him, but won over Cheney by embracing the former president, backed by McCarthy and other party leaders.
Cheney’s defeat follows that of the last Bush to hold public office, Jeb’s son George P. Bush, who was defeated in the Republican primary for Texas attorney general by Trump-backed Ken Paxton in May .
On Fox News, conservative writer Charlie Kirk called Tuesday’s election a “mass repudiation” of the Bush-Cheney-McCain era.
New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who replaced Cheney in the House GOP leadership and endorsed Hageman, said in a statement that she was glad to see Pelosi’s “puppet” defeated.
Former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson, who served in Congress with Dick Cheney and has known Liz Cheney since childhood, says he can no longer recognize the party he joined, casting his first presidential vote for Dwight Eisenhower.
“What’s happened to our party is the fear of Donald J. Trump,” Simpson said.
Founded in the mid-19th century, the GOP’s core conservative values have morphed in the Trump era into a strain of politics more focused on grievances at home and isolationism abroad.
Those running for Congress include many Republican incumbents who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s election, bolstering Trump’s relentlessly false allegations of a rigged election and fueling the Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill.
And many of the GOP’s new congressional candidates are also opt-outs, according to a Democratic count.
“The House is — should be — the people’s House,” said former Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo of Florida. Instead, he said, “It’s controlled by Mr. Trump.”
Cheney walks alone for days on Capitol Hill, flanked by plainclothes Capitol Police officers guarding her amid an onslaught of violent threats.
Her mission to deny Trump a return to the presidency is evident in her daily schedule, with much of her time devoted to deepening and completing the work of the 6/1 committee.
