Liz Cheney's "dire" warning against reelecting Trump

call her a very concerned conservative John  Dickerson this morning is talking with Wyoming   Republican and former congresswoman Liz Cheney  given your experience do you look at politics   differently do you say you know we spent a lot  of time demonizing the other side which put all   of our supporters in the mindset of you know  what they're not just wrong they're evil yeah   absolutely if everything that a political  adversary does is met with you know know an   attack that oh my God this is this is you know  the worst possible thing you can imagine this   is this is dire then when you face something  that really is dire like we are facing today   with respect to Donald Trump and his efforts to  unravel the Republic people become numb to the   truth because they feel like well we've heard  that so many times before from politicians how   do you sound the alarm when people have gotten  used to the ringing that's the challenge for   former congresswoman Liz Cheney who has had to  update even her sense of alarm as Donald Trump's   effort to overthrow the last election has not  stopped him from becoming the GOP Presidential   favorite as an election denier has become speaker  of the house and prominent Republicans have come   to embrace election conspiracies as the route to  political Glory you once used to say that nobody   could challenge your conservative credentials  what if being a conservative today is defined   by one thing your support for Donald Trump well  I know what conservative means and I think that   the most conservative of all conservative values  is Fidelity to the Constitution so you know there   are certainly are people today who are caught  in this cult of personality but that's that's   the opposite of conservative this primary election  is over after losing her 2022 Republican primary   Cheney traded the US capital dome for the Thomas  Jefferson designed rotunda at the University   of Virginia where she had has been lecturing on  politics and writing a new book oath and honor let   me ask you about that oath if a person is a member  of Congress and they've sworn an oath to defend   the Constitution can they defend the Constitution  and also endorse Donald Trump no SOC consistent   they're breaking with their Oath by saying they  would like him to be the next president in my   view you know fundamentally there is a choice to  be made you can't both be for Donald Trump and   for the Constitution you have to choose that's a  lot of people people who are choosing Donald Trump   yeah it is in the aftermath of the January 6th  2021 attack on the capital Cheney was one of only   10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald  Trump soon after she joined the democratically   L committee to investigate the attack tonight  I say this to my Republican colleagues who are   defending the indefensible there will come a day  when Donald Trump is gone but your dishonor will   remain once the number three leader in the house  Republican conference Cheney was shunned by it but   she found an ally in then Speaker of the House  California Democrat Nancy Pelosi I don't know   that I had ever spoken more than a few sentences  to her before she called me and asked me to be on   the committee I learned later that her staff put  together for her a list of the top 10 worst things   Liz Cheney has ever said about Nancy Pelosi and  gave it to her and she apparently took one look   at it and said why are you bothering me with  things that don't matter would you take back   some of the 10 oh sure we've all said things  about each other that we probably in hindsight   wish we hadn't said Cheney came to Washington in  2016 along with Donald Trump didn't like him she   said but she supported his policies on issues  like abortion and gun control she voted with   him more than 90% of the time certainly I think  all of us in the Republican Party watched things   unfold to some extent before 2020 uh and said  well that that's you know just Donald Trump you   don't have to take it seriously I think what  we saw that was different post 2020 election   was the actual attempt to overturn the election  and seize power Cheney's book also details the   groundwork laid by Trump's allies in the weeks  leading up to January 6th in the book you spend   a fair amount of time on a previously relatively  obscure Louisiana Congressman this is Mike Johnson   you know Mike and I were uh good friends but what  I learned was that in fact he was operating in a   way that was was dangerous why dangerous it was  dangerous because what Mike was doing was taking   steps that he knew to be wrong doing things that  uh he knew to have no basis in fact or law or the   Constitution and Mike was willing time and again  to ignore the rulings of the Courts to ignore what   state and federal courts had done and said about  the elections in these states in order to attempt   to do Donald Trump's bidding so he was asserting  not only facts for which he had no evidence but   which the courts had already ruled had no merit  right exactly we asked speaker Mike Johnson for   comment his office tells Sunday morning Cheney's  book does not present an accurate portrayal of   those events and that he wishes her the best  in that book Cheney itemizes each turn with   Johnson before January 6th a lot of attention  for a name she expected few of her readers to   know but she felt Johnson's slight of hand was  emblematic of Republicans who don't just go along   with Trump's deceptions but boost them she had  no idea she was writing about a future speaker   the speaker of the house is a collaborator to  overthrow the last election absolutely what   happens if Mike Johnson's the speaker on the 6th  of January 2025 he can't be you know we're facing   a situation with respect to the 2024 election uh  where it's an existential crisis uh and we have   to ensure that we don't have a situation where  an election that might be thrown into the House   of Representatives um is overseen by a republican  majority so you would prefer a democratic majority   I believe very strongly in those principles and  ideals that have defined the Republican party but   the Republican party of today has made a choice  and they haven't chosen the Constitution and so   I do think it's uh it presents a threat if the  Republicans are in the majority in January 2025   it's a threat Cheney hopes she can be clear enough  about to break through the political numbness you   say Donald Trump if he is reelected it will be  the end of the Republic what do you mean he's   told us what he will do people who say well if  he's elected it's not that dangerous because we   have all of these checks and balances don't fully  understand the extent to which the republicans in   Congress today um have been co-opted one of the  things that we see happening today is sort of a a   sleepwalking into a dictatorship in the United  States Donald Trump a fascist I think that he   certainly is employing fascist techniques I think  that the the tools that he's using are tools that   we've seen used by authoritarians fascist  tyrants around the world you know the the   things that he has said and done in some ways  are so outrageous that we have become numb to   them what I believe is the cause of our time is  that we not become numb that we understand the   warning signs that we understand the danger and  that that we ignore partisan politics to stop him

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 753,613

Keywords: Liz Cheney, Sunday Morning, CBS Village Women, Politics, U.S.

Id: qBRQL0gWQy4

Length: 8min 4sec (484 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 03 2023