Liz Cheney Dropped Big Insider Truth Bombs Over the Weekend. She Says We Should All Be Worried.

It doesn’t look like she is going to stop talking about January 6 or the Big Lie

Rep. Liz Cheney on CNN this past Sunday

The fracture of the GOP was in full display over the weekend, with recently ousted GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney leading the charge. On the Sunday talk show circuit, Cheney pulled few punches and laid out the case for why her party cannot simply ignore the Big Lie or Trump’s continued promotion of it. And she revealed some inside perspectives that should have us all concerned, including that many of her fellow GOP representatives are in fact acting out of fear for their own safety.

“If you look at the vote to impeach, for example, there were members who told me that they were afraid for their own security—afraid, in some instances, for their lives," Cheney told Jake Tapper on CNN. "And that tells you something about where we are as a country, that members of Congress aren't able to cast votes, or feel that they can't, because of their own security.” She warned that “we've had a collapse of truth in this country” and that it is this that compelled her to speak out:

We've seen an evolution of, you know, a general situation where conspiracy theories are rampant, where good people in a lot of instances have been misled and believe things that are not true. And so, I think that we all have an obligation to make sure we're doing everything we can to convey the truth, to stand for the truth and to stand for the Constitution and our obligations.

Cheney also emphasized that the risk of violence is not over. When asked by Jon Karl of ABC News, “When you say ‘dangerous’ — dangerous how? Are you suggesting that January 6 could happen again, or maybe something worse?” Cheney responded, “I think there’s no question.” She also took strong issue with recent statements by GOP House members who are trying to rewrite history and downplay the insurrection. “The notion that this was somehow a tourist event is disgraceful and despicable,” Cheney told Karl.

Cheney also blasted GOP House Leadership, labeling Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and the new Conference Chair, Elise Stefanik, as “complicit” while adding to Chris Wallace of Fox News, “I'm not willing to do that. I think that there are some things that have to be bigger than party, that have to be bigger than partisanship. Our oath to the Constitution is one of those.” With a swipe at the ex-president, Cheney added that the investigation of January 6 should include Trump’s alleged determination not to offer assistance during the attack and any “conversations in the Oval Office before this, about the possibility of declaring martial law” and “seizing ballot machines.”

It seems clear that, even out of power, Cheney will be pushing for full transparency and accountability, including the fateful conversation that Kevin McCarthy had with the former president when the insurrection was at its most dangerous point and McCarthy was screaming vulgarities at Trump to call them off.

To counter Cheney’s message on the talk shows, the GOP trotted out Rep. Dan Crenshaw, whose Texas district outside of Houston only exists, as I’ve written about earlier, because it is one of the most gerrymandered in the country. Crenshaw demonstrated how eager Republicans are to put the January 6th insurrection behind them, presumably so they can go on the attack over Democratic policies. On MSNBC, Crenshaw insisted voters wanted to hear about gas prices, the “border crisis” and inflation. “These are things that affect people, not this internal drama,” Crenshaw said to host Chuck Todd. He noted that Minority Leader McCarthy has said that arguments about the election’s result are “all over with,” and that within the party “there is disagreement, but it’s time to move on.”

Todd pushed back, arguing that the ex-president continues to peddle baseless claims about the election and that they just removed Liz Cheney for refusing to back down from challenging them. “Sitting here and saying, ‘Oh, there’s disagreement about the election.’ Look, there’s not disagreement about the facts,” Todd said. “Do any of your critiques come across as credible if you can’t accept the fundamental fact that our democracy held a free and fair election?”

Indeed, over the weekend, Trump crowed in a statement about a poll showing that 80 percent of Republicans back Cheney’s ouster and that 76 percent of them do not believe Joe Biden was legitimately elected. And Trump ranted once again in support of the Big Lie about the stolen election, throwing Mike Pence and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell under the bus while at it:

As long as Trump continues to highlight the 2020 election and hurl invectives and baseless claims about it, it is highly unlikely that Liz Cheney will stop speaking out, or the GOP will be able to “move on” from it no matter how desperately McCarthy wishes they could.