Republican Liz Cheney declares her vote for Democrat Kamala Harris and asks conservatives to put “country above party”
After her father, Vice President Dick Cheney, gave his somewhat unexpected support to Kamala Harris’ candidacy, former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney joined the Democratic vice president’s campaign on Thursday. Cheney became the most important active conservative to declare her vote for Harris, after more than three years of fighting against Donald Trump and his radical followers for power in the Republican Party.
Liz Cheney was part of a Kamala Harris campaign event at a university in Ripon, in central Wisconsin, in a moment surrounded by symbolism. The announcement in Ripon was not accidental: it was in that small town that, in 1854, the first meetings to form the Republican Party took place, in addition to being in Wisconsin, a state considered crucial for next month’s presidential elections.
Side by side with the Democratic candidate, the former congresswoman from Wyoming (whose father is one of the most controversial conservative figures of the 21st century), criticized Trump and warned of the risks that the former President poses to democracy. He asked, as the banner behind him said, that voters put “the country above the party”.
“Donald Trump was willing to sacrifice our Capitol, to allow law enforcement officials to be assaulted and brutalized in his name, and he was willing to violate the law and the Constitution in order to take power for himself,” said Liz Cheney, alluding to the attack on January 6, 2021. And, cited by CNNconsidered that Trump’s actions that day make him a person who “cannot be trusted with power again”.
The congresswoman defended and voted in favor of Donald Trump’s policies in Congress during the former President’s first years in the White House, but the invasion of the Capitol marked a turning point. The attack by Trump supporters was devalued and whitewashed by the majority of the Republican Party, but some Republicans, such as Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger, were removed from the party for having voted in favor of the former leader’s dismissal process.
Cheney and Kinzinger, like many others, became part of Republican campaigns against Trump and in favor of a more moderate party, far from the MAGA (“Make America Great Again”) movement. The congresswoman said she would “proudly” vote for Kamala Harris, urging other conservatives to follow in her footsteps.
“I know she will be a President who will uphold the rule of law, and I know she will be a President who can inspire all of our children, especially the youngest girls,” Cheney said, according to the New York Times.
Kamala Harris enthusiastically thanked the Republican for her support and recalled that the founding basis of the Republican Party 170 years ago was opposition to slavery, stressing that “Liz Cheney stands on the side of the noblest traditions of her leaders” and that her support has “special meaning”.
“If people across Wisconsin and the nation are willing to do what Liz is doing, to speak up for the rule of law, our democratic ideals and the Constitution of the United States, then together, I know we can forge a new path, not as members of a single party, but as Americans”, reaffirmed Harris.
Donald Trump’s reaction to the comments against him and his leadership was not long in coming. On Fox News, the Republican candidate said that Liz Cheney was “terrible in Congress”, that she is a “stupid war enthusiast who just wants to fire missiles at people”. “I think they are harmful to each other. I think they are both very bad”, he assessed.
At the beginning of her candidacy for President of the United States, shortly after Joe Biden’s withdrawal, Kamala Harris was often considered by polls and media perception studies as more left-wing and more radical than the President. In recent months, her campaign has sought to create a more comprehensive image of Harris, with ads run by Republican platforms launched in key states, and has painted the candidacy as a coalition against Trump and in defense of democracy.
In practice, this has led Harris to promote herself as a Democrat concerned with conservative issues – for example, she repeated in several campaign actions and even in the debate that she has a firearm and that she is a “capitalist”. In recent weeks, Harris has obtained the aforementioned support from Dick Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, military authorities and a group of former employees of Ronald Reagan, one of the most influential Republicans in American political history.
