Liz Cheney has recently visited several universities where she’s talked about American democracy, the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, and the current state of the Republican Party. The tour may also be a warm-up for a Cheney presidential run in 2024.
The month of October has seen Rep. Liz Cheney visit several major universities, where she’s talked with students and faculty about threats to American democracy, the work of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the nation’s Capitol, and the current state of the Republican Party under the thumb of Donald Trump.
There’s no doubt that Liz Cheney has become one of this fall’s most sought-after campus speakers. But perhaps the Cheney-goes-back-to-college tour is also something of a test – a warm-up to what might eventually be a run by the three-term congresswoman from Wyoming for the presidency in 2024.
Cheney, perhaps the most outspoken Republican critic of former President Donald Trump, was one of only ten House Republicans who voted to impeach him for his role in the January 6 Capital riot. While she has talked about social issues as well, Cheney’s emphasis at each campus stop has been to address the nature of true patriotism, the dangers of election deniers like Trump, the increasing threat of disinformation to our national security, and the duties of citizenship that individual Americans bear for maintaining our democracy.
So far Cheney’s campus tour has included Arizona State University, Notre Dame University, Syracuse University, and just this last week she went to Harvard.
Her message has been much the same at all the campuses: American democracy is fragile and in grave trouble from political extremists, the Republican party has been taken over by Trump sycophants, and protecting our freedoms and our elections is the responsibility of every American.
On October 3, Cheney spoke with Syracuse University Provost Gretchen Ritter about the responsibilities of citizenship and urged students to become engaged in civil service. You can hear the entire conversation here.
Cheney directly addressed her vote to impeach Trump for his role in inciting the January 6 insurrection and, in her words, going to “war with the rule of law.” “Donald Trump sending a mob he knew was angry, and he knew was armed to the capitol in an attempt to stop the counting of electoral votes is so clearly indefensible that it is inexplicable to me that so many in my party are defending it,” she said.
