Cold, direct and inflexible. The Congresswoman Liz Cheney has become the face and voice of the special committee investigating the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. For some it is the great traitor of the Republican Party. For others, Cheney, 54, stands as a symbol of courage since she preferred to be defenestrated by her own people rather than “defend the indefensible.” Or what is the same: a Donald Trump.
During the second impeachment to the then president, Cheney was one of the ten Republicans who voted against the leader of their party. But the conservatives’ disapproval came right after, when publicly repudiated Trump’s electoral lies and he agreed to participate, along with his fellow soldier Adam Kinzinger, in the investigation into the riots in Washington.
That cost him his position as number three in the House of Representatives. Far from cowering, the Republican representative from the state of Wyoming decided to add fuel to the fire. “Remaining silent and ignoring the lie strengthens the liar“He then told his colleagues. And he continued, defiantly: “I will not sit and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president’s crusade to undermine our democracy.”
Liz Cheney during one of the first hearings of the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
Reuters
[“Donald Trump estaba en el centro” del asalto al Capitolio: el Congreso acorrala al expresidente]
From the exile of the bases, she is the one who, in each televised hearing, reels off point by point the plan hatched by the former Republican president to discredit Joe Biden’s victory in the elections two years ago.
In this sense, Liz Cheney is to Donald Trump what Sue Gray and her investigation are to Boris Johnson and his illegal parties. With the difference that the first has become the black sheep of the family, but it’s not just any sheep.
Daughter of Bush’s favorite hawk
Representative of the hard wing of the conservative party, Liz Cheney is the daughter of Dick Cheney, controversial former vice president of the George W. Bush era. Hawk of hawks, his father was one of the promoters of the Iraq war two decades ago, architect of the Guantánamo military prison and defender of the interrogation techniques that took place there.
Liz Cheney grew up in the shadow of the Bush Administration’s “war on terror.” And he inherited from his father, who has been compared to Darth Vader, his conservative ideals and his aggressive vision on foreign policy.
Aligned with Trump’s agenda during the beginning of her term, Cheney showed signs of rebellion when opposed the decision to withdraw US troops from Syria and Afghanistan in October 2019. “We must ensure that we continue that mission until ISIS is defeated,” he said then. Some statements that Trump took advantage of to call her “warmonger“.
[Los candidatos apoyados por Trump se imponen en gran parte de las primarias del partido republicano]
For Cheney, politics is a family legacy. And she seems unwilling to let it be questioned by anyone. Not even for his own family.
Dick Cheney and Liz Cheney during the tribute to the victims of the assault on the Capitol organized by Democrats on January 6, 2022.
AP Photo
In 2013, when he was running for Senate representative from Wyoming, he said he was against same-sex marriage. Some statements that did not sit well with his sister Mary—married to a woman—who publicly accused her of treating her family “like second-class citizens.”
Ante the media stirthe politician confessed that she loved her sister very much, but that they had different opinions on the subject. Later, when the family patriarch, critical of gay marriage for decades, defended Mary, Liz recanted and abandoned her candidacy for senator.
Since then, the relationship between sisters has never been the same, but the one between Dick and Liz Cheney seems to be at its best.
On January 6, 2022, Cheney Sr. returned to the House of Representatives to accompany his daughter to honor the victims of the insurrection and the assault on the Capitol. They were the only Republicans who were present at the event.
Thus, who for years was one of the great enemies of the left and his daughter They were received with applause from the Democrats who, like them, perceive the danger that Donald Trump’s lies pose for the country’s democracy.