Liz Cheney has a really hard time admitting when she has made a major mistake. While she would not have voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election if she knew then what she knows now, she still would not have voted for President Joe Biden. What’s worse is that she is trying to justify not voting for the first impeachment (starts at 4:02) . Representative Adam Kinzinger admitted that he should have supported it, but that the reason he didn’t was because of political pressure within his caucus. She has done a wonderful job as Vice Chair of the January 6th Committee. However, this shows she really hasn’t logically thought through the matter or learned the lessons she should have. The vote by republicans including her to not impeach Donald Trump when he abused his power and violated campaign finance law sent a message of weakness to Donald Trump. That message was that republicans were not going to stand up to him or impose consequences upon him if he broke the law. Republicans including Liz Cheney sent a message to Donald Trump that there would be no accountability for him no matter what he did.
It could not have been more clear that Donald Trump abused his power when he made receiving the foreign aid approved by Congress for Ukraine dependent upon doing a political favor for him. Congress had already determined that Ukraine met corruption standards to be eligible for receiving foreign aid. Consider what has happened in the time after the first impeachment trial, namely that Russia initiated a war against Ukraine. Ukraine undoubtedly was already concerned about Russian aggression.
Congress approves the foreign aid for Ukraine. Then President Trump refuses to allow it to go through. Then in a telephone call with President Zelensky, Donald Trump makes it crystal clear that if President Zelensky wanted that foreign aid, then he (Zelensky) needed to do a personal political favor for him (Donald Trump). To be clear, Donald Trump did not say that Zelensky needed to conduct an investigation quietly into Hunter Biden to see if any laws had been broken. Donald Trump didn’t demand an investigation at all. He demanded an announcement of an investigation into the son of his most likely political rival and based releasing the foreign aid for Ukraine approved by Congress upon performing that personal political favor. The Constitution didn’t give President Trump the power to do that. That was an abuse of his office, an abuse of power.
Moreover, this contributed to President Trump’s ability to achieve victory in the 2020 presidential election. If it didn’t, then why did he do it? Again, he didn’t ask for an investigation; he asked for an announcement of an investigation. The difference between the two is stark. He didn’t say to determine if Hunter Biden committed a crime according to Ukrainian law and if he did, then prosecute him. That would have been interfering with Ukrainian politics and law, but there would have at least been an argument for it. Donald Trump never showed any interest in an actual investigation and any results obtained by an investigation. There was never any evidence that showed President Trump’s interest was in justice rather than obtaining a political favor so that he could prevail in the upcoming 2020 presidential election. No action or words of Donald Trump’s can only be accounted for by an interest strictly in justice and which could not be accounted for by an interest in a political favor that would help him win the 2020 presidential election. Everything that Donald Trump did in this matter can be explained by a desire to prevail in the 2020 presidential election. Nothing he did can’t be explained by that. Since that is clearly his motive, then he clearly believed that it held value for his political fortunes. Otherwise, since his only motive was to get a political favor that would give him a better chance at winning in the 2020 presidential election, then he would not have done it. This can only mean that it was a thing of value for his campaign. He spent time, a finite resource, on it. President Zelensky is a foreign national and President Trump solicited help from him, something that would have contributed to his campaign. Hence, Donald Trump solicited a campaign contribution from a foreign national. This is a violation of campaign finance law.
While both of these charges would be valid, the first one is obvious and undeniable. Representative Cheney is not stupid. She knows that President Trump had no power from his office to withhold foreign aid approved by Congress for Ukraine until the Ukrainian president agreed to perform a political favor for him. She knows that he had no power given in the Constitution to do this.
And allowing President Trump to clearly go beyond his constitutional powers in an abuse of power sent a message that republicans would not impose consequences or hold him accountable no matter what he did. Had Congressional Republicans held him accountable for this and removed him from power, then the insurrection would not have happened. Failing that, some other strong signal that they would hold Donald Trump accountable might have led him to hesitate to pursue the insurrection and the attempted coup. Liz Cheney must realize this.
When the person interviewing her stated that while she would not have voted for Donald Trump, she still would not have voted for Joe Biden, she did not disagree. She must realize that only one presidential candidate could have defeated Donald Trump which means that the best way that a voter could have made sure that Donald Trump did not win with their vote was to vote for President Biden. If Donald Trump did not win, then Joe Biden must have won. So, if you don’t want Donald Trump to win, then you must want Joe Biden to win. Donald Trump not winning is the same as Joe Biden winning. They are two sides of the same coin. Since she didn’t want Donald Trump to win (if she were to go back in time and yet know then what she now knows), then she must have wanted Joe Biden to win. But if you want Joe Biden to win, then why not vote for him?
She is having trouble reasoning. It starts to appear like she can’t reason her way out of a paper bag here. It is clear that she still has not fully thought through this matter and she has a really hard time admitting that she has made major mistakes.
She is an ally to a large extent on democracy, but she doesn’t seem to have had the kind of profound change of heart that other republicans did.