Liz Cheney, a Republican representative from Wyoming, declared at the Texas Tribune festival on Saturday that she will no longer be a Republican if former President Donald Trump is chosen as the party's nominee for president in 2024.
"I will do everything possible to prevent Donald Trump from being the nominee. And I won't be a Republican if he wins the nomination, "Cheney declared.
Cheney also stated that she would run for Democrats to prevent Republican candidates who support false election claims from winning.
Cheney was discussing the Arizona governor's race and how she would work to prevent the election of GOP nominee Kari Lake, a former television journalist who has become a leading proponent of Trump's election fraud lies.
Cheney declared, "I'm going to do everything I can to ensure Kari Lake is not elected.
Cheney responded "Yes" when asked if that includes running for office as a Democrat.
Cheney would not, however, go so far as to say that she wants the Democrats to continue to hold the majority in the House of Representatives following the midterm elections.
Even though the Biden administration has many "bad policies," Cheney said, "I think it's really important that voters recognize and understand what the Republican Conference in the House of Representatives consists of today."
Last month's primary contest between Cheney and Trump-backed lawyer Harriet Hageman marked a turning point in the larger debate over the direction of the Republican Party. Cheney, who was once seen as a rising star, was ousted from the House GOP leadership last year due to her steadfast opposition to the former President. As she assisted in leading the House select committee looking into the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, she fell behind in polls back home this year.
However, Cheney has continued to avoid whether she will run for President in 2024 as concerns about her upcoming political actions loom.
She declared, "It's not about me or deciding what I'm going to do. I'm sure I'll go to any lengths to prevent Donald Trump from getting close to the White House.
Cheney's advisors previously told CNN that she plans to postpone making any decisions until after she leaves office as vice chair of the House January 6 committee and is no longer a member of Congress. She is aware of the risk of appearing to politicize the committee's findings.
She does, however, receive the kind of attention from the select committee that other Republican Trump critics have found difficult to obtain. When Cheney leaves office in January, she will face the same problem, and the only way to solve it might be to run for President.
When asked if the House January 6 committee would interview Trump before its probe was finished, Cheney responded, "Let me say that any interaction that Donald Trump has with the committee will be under oath and subject to penalties of perjury." The committee will hold its next hearing the following week.
Regarding the current status of negotiations between the committee and Mike Pence's legal representative, Cheney stated that she thought Pence had an "obligation" to communicate with the committee. Although she respects executive privilege, she considers it "not absolute."
According to Cheney, the committee has not yet determined whether to refer a case for prosecution to the Department of Justice based on its investigation. Still, when it does, she believes the decision will be "unanimous."
However, she did mention that the Secret Service had provided the committee with roughly 800,000 pages in response to a subpoena, and she emphasized that the documents contain a ton of new information.
Regarding whether the texts sent by specific Secret Service agents the day before and during the attack on the Capitol have vanished, Cheney stated, "In many cases, the text messages themselves are lost. In addition to team messages and emails, there are other ways to communicate, and we've probably received at least 800,000 pages in total."
When asked to recall a special moment since the Capitol attack with her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, she recalled that on New Year's Day of this year, as she was leaving his house, he had told her to "defend the republic, daughter." She added that it was a moment she will never forget.
