Immediately after Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) was ousted by House Republicans as chair of the conference, she sat down with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie for an interview in which she said she intended to be “one of the leaders in a fight to help to restore our party.”
“Are you the leader of the opposition in exile right now in the Republican Party?” Guthrie asked.
“I intend to be the leader, one of the leaders in a fight to help to restore our party,” Cheney replied. “In a fight to bring our party back to substance and principles, and in a fight to make clear that we won’t participate in the really dangerous effort that’s underway.”
“A lot of people frame this as a battle for the soul of the Republican Party,” Guthrie said.
“This is the opening salvo, and it’s a battle we have to win because it’s not just about the Republican Party. It’s about the country,” Cheney responded.
“The Trump political team is actively looking to coalesce around a primary challenger to you. What is your message to them?” Guthrie asked, to which Cheney said, “You know, bring it on.”
Cheney slammed former President Donald Trump both before and after the vote.
“We must be true to our principles and to the Constitution,” Cheney told fellow House Republicans before the closed-door vote, according to the Today Show. “We cannot let the former president drag us backward and make us complicit in his efforts to unravel our democracy. Down that path lies our destruction and potentially the destruction of our country.”
After the vote, she added that if Trump decides to run again in 2024, “I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office.”
Trump fired back after the vote by describing Cheney as “a bitter, horrible human being.”
“She has no personality or anything good having to do with politics or our country,” Trump said of Cheney, according to Yahoo News. “She is a talking point for Democrats, whether that means the border, the gas lines, inflation, or destroying our economy.”
Not stopping there, Trump made reference to Cheney’s father, former Vice President Dick Cheney.
“She is a warmonger whose family stupidly pushed us into the never-ending Middle East Disaster, draining our wealth and depleting our great military, the worst decision in our country’s history,” Trump concluded. “I look forward to soon watching her as a paid contributor on CNN or MSDNC!”
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