Liz Cheney: A Time For Choosing

Team Trump has been trying its best to vilify Cassidy Hutchinson, one of the very few former White House staffer who's had the courage to say the Emperor is wearing no clothes. Sean Hannity called it rumors, "a ton of hearsay, and a lot of impeached testimony." Laura Ingraham called Hutchinson's testimony an "audition tape"for a job on The View. Mark meadows, through a "spokesperson," denies he ever sought a pardon. And lots of right-wingers know what the Secret Service agents will say, though they themselves have said nothing.  But there is one conservative Republican who stands behind Hutchinson. Her name is Liz Cheney. She delivered a powerful speech to the Reagan Foundation (you can see it above) Wednesday afternoon while right wing talking heads were rolling around onthe floor, frothing at the mouth. “Republicans cannot both be loyal to Donald Trump and loyal to the Constitution,” she said.

Here are some excerpts. 

The domestic threat facing America

"[W]e are confronting a domestic threat that we have never faced before. And that is a former president who is attempting to unravel the foundations of our constitutional republic. And he is aided by Republican leaders and elected officials who made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man. Now, some in my party are embracing former President Trump. And even after all we’ve seen, they’re enabling his lies. Many others are urging that we not confront Donald Trump, that we look away. And that is certainly the easier path. One need only look at the threats that are facing the witnesses who’ve come before the January 6th Committee to understand the nature and the magnitude of that threat. But to argue that the threat posed by Donald Trump can be ignored, is to cast aside the responsibility that every citizen, every one of us bears to perpetuate the republic."

Trump Summoned the Mob

"He summoned a mob to Washington. He knew they were armed on January 6th. He knew they were angry. And he directed the violent mob to march on the Capitol in order to delay or prevent completely the counting of electoral votes. He attempted to go there with them. And when the violence was underway, he refused to take action to tell the rioters to leave. Instead, he incited further violence by tweeting that the Vice President Mike Pence was a coward. He said, “Mike deserves it.” And he didn’t want to do anything in response to the hang Mike Pence chance. It’s undeniable. It’s also painful for Republicans to accept."

On BiPartisanship

"I serve on the Armed Services Committee and I have differences, as I’ve said with most of the democratic members of that committee, but we also share much in common. Among my most competent, honorable, and serious colleagues, are a group of women veterans that I serve with on that committee. Women like Mikie Sherrill from New Jersey, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Elaine Luria of Virginia, former DOD official Elissa Slotkin from Michigan.

"We debate issues. We have big disagreements. We don’t come out on the same side most of the time, but we respect each other. And I know that those women, those veterans love this country and they are on that committee. And they’re in Congress, because they want to serve the nation and do the right thing. And for 61 years, that tradition of unifying across party lines has meant that the Armed Services Committee and the House of Representatives, every year produces the National Defense Authorization Act in a bipartisan fashion, usually in a unanimous fashion, providing resources for the defense of the nation. And that is a model that we should follow for the rest of Congress and for the rest of this country. We need to debate and defend our beliefs. But we also have to work to build the future, where we remember that despite our differences, we are all Americans."

Younger People, Especially Women, Will Save This Country

"I have been incredibly moved by the young people that I have met, young people who approach me everywhere, at home in Wyoming, in Washington, DC, in airports all over the country. And I will tell you, it is especially the young women, young women who seem instinctively to understand the peril of this moment for our democracy, and young women who know that it will be up to them to save it. And I have been incredibly moved by the young women that I have met and that have come forward to testify in the January 6th Committee. Some of these are young women who worked on the Trump campaign, some worked in the Trump White House, some who worked in offices on Capitol Hill, all who knew immediately that what happened that day must never happen again."

The Courage of Cassidy Hutchinson

"America had the chance to meet one of these young women yesterday, Miss Cassidy Hutchinson. Her superiors, men many years older, a number of them are hiding behind executive privilege, anonymity, and intimidation, but her bravery and her patriotism yesterday were awesome to behold. Little girls all across this great nation are seeing what it really means to love this country and what it really means to be a patriot. And I want to speak to every young girl watching tonight. The power is yours and so is the responsibility. In our great nation, one individual can make all the difference and each individual must try. There are no bystanders in a constitutional republic. And let me also say this to the little girls and to the young women who are watching tonight, these days for the most part, men are running the world and it is really not going that well."