Former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney on Sunday encouraged anti-Trump Republicans and independents to consider voting for Vice President Kamala Harris, adding that it is “not enough” to nominate someone other than former President Donald Trump in the November election.
“Given how close this race is, to me, it’s not enough. There are a lot of Republicans who say, ‘Well, you know, we’re not going to vote for him, but we’re going to write someone else in,'” Cheney said during an interview on ABC News’ “This Week.” “And I think that’s not enough this time, that it’s important to actually vote for Vice President Harris.”
When asked why she decided to support Harris, Cheney noted that in her 40 years as an elector she had never voted for a Democrat, but that Trump “poses a challenge and a fundamental threat to the republic.”
“We see it every day, someone who was willing to use violence to seize power to stay in power, someone who represents an irreparable catastrophe,” said Cheney, an outspoken Trump critic who was vice chairman of the House committee on Jan. 6. “Frankly, in my opinion, and we should do everything we can to make sure he doesn’t do that, that he doesn’t get reelected.”
Asked whether Harris’ moderate positions on a range of issues compared to a few years ago made the decision to endorse her any easier, Cheney pointed to Harris’ speech at the Democratic National Convention last month, a speech she said could have been given by former Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush.
“It’s really an embrace and an understanding of the exceptional nature of this great nation, a love for America, a recognition that America is a special place, a recognition that we all have to work together to ensure that,” she said. “And you balance that against preserving it. You balance that against what we hear every day from Donald Trump, that America is a failed nation, that America is a joke.”
“The trash-talking of the United States of America is a big part of Donald Trump’s message. And so I think it’s important for people to recognize that he’s not a conservative,” Cheney said, referring to Trump’s embrace of global tariffs, which she criticized as “fundamentally an anti-conservative policy” that would “strangle global trade.”
Cheney said she spoke with Harris while making her decision to support the vice president’s campaign, but she would not provide details about the conversation.
“I won’t go into the details of the conversation, but I just want to say that she fully recognizes and understands the stakes of this race and that it’s important to reflect the broad coalition that’s coming together to support her,” she said.
When asked what she thinks of former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s recent comments, in which she said she was “on standby” to campaign for Trump after criticizing the former president for being unfit for a second term, Cheney said she “can’t understand her position on this in any principled way” because Haley had campaigned in the Republican presidential primary on conservative principles.
“The things that she said, that she made clear when she ran in the primaries, those things are true,” she said. “And again, you know, we who are conservative, we who believe in fidelity to the Constitution, have a responsibility and an obligation to recognize that this is not about partisan politics and that the country needs to rebuild a conservative, a true conservative movement as we get through this election cycle.”
“In too many cases that so many elected Republicans have made — namely, giving up on the Constitution, saying to yourself this is just a partisan choice — that is not what we are seeing this time,” she said.
NBC News has reached out to a spokesperson for Haley for comment.
Cheney, who was ousted from the House Republican leadership after she condemned Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, announced her support for Harris last week. Days later, her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, also said he plans to vote for Harris in November.
Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) rejected the idea that Republican support for Harris would make a difference in the presidential election.
“It’s a remarkable time in politics, you have Dick Cheney supporting a Democrat and you have Kennedy supporting a Republican,” Cotton said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” referring to former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who endorsed Trump last month.
“I think it tells us that there is a lot of unrest in American politics, but ultimately recommendations are not going to make the difference in this race. What is going to make the difference is their track record,” he added, before criticizing Harris’ record on economics.
In his statement announcing his support for Harris, the former vice president criticized Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of a stolen election in 2020 and said “he can never be trusted with power again.”
Asked during an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” about what he would say to undecided voters who might be swayed by the former vice president’s argument, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum said he’s not sure if any undecided voters would be swayed because “it’s pretty well understood” that Cheney is “not a fan” of Trump.
Burgum questioned whether Cheney would campaign on Harris’ behalf, citing Democrats’ criticism of the former vice president over his foreign policy record.
“This is the, you know, ‘Darth Cheney,'” he said. “I think, you know, genocidal war criminals,’ as Democrats called him for decades. And now, overnight, they’re embracing him. So I wonder if he might be on the campaign trail.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has not endorsed Harris since she replaced President Joe Biden in the race, praised the Cheneys for their support of Harris in a separate interview on “Meet the Press.”
“I think Dick and Liz Cheney are saying that in this existential moment in American history, it’s not just about issues,” he said. “Cheney and I don’t agree on anything, no issues. But what we do believe is that the United States has to preserve its democratic foundations.”
“And it’s not just Cheney. I think there are a significant number of Republicans who say, ‘Well, you know, I may not agree with the vice president on this or that issue, but I can’t stand someone who is a pathological liar, someone who incited an insurrection to undermine the election results,'” he added. “So I applaud the Cheneys for their courage in defending democracy. Obviously, we have very different positions on all issues.”
Sanders also said he doesn’t think Harris is abandoning her progressive ideals. He said she made a “pragmatic” move by moderating her positions “to win the election.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
