(WASHINGTON) — Former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, a staunch critic of former President Donald Trump, announced Wednesday that she will be voting for Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, revealed her decision during a panel at Duke University and reiterated her warnings of the dangers of a second Trump term.
“As a conservative and as someone who cares and believes in the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this and because of the danger Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris,” she said to a roaring crowd.
Harris is “proud” to get “patriot” Cheney’s endorsement, the Harris campaign said in a statement Wednesday night as it continues to court Republican voters ahead of the election.
“The Vice President is proud to have earned Congresswoman Cheney’s vote. She is a patriot who loves this country and puts our democracy and our Constitution first,” Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote. “As she noted in her powerful remarks, this election is a choice between the fundamental threat Donald Trump poses to our democracy and a leader who will stand up for our freedoms and the rule of law in Vice President Harris.”
Answering questions from the audience at a campaign event in Mesa, Arizona, Trump’s running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance blasted Cheney for backing Harris.
“A very good thing that I could say about the next Presidency of Donald J. Trump is that he’s going to make sure that people like Liz Cheney are laughed out of the Oval Office instead of rewarded,” Vance said.
Cheney voted to impeach Trump following what she has called the “insurrection” of Jan. 6, 2021, and was vice chair of the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. She received backlash from Trump and other Republicans for her criticism of the former president and was censured by the Republican National Committee.
Trump said in March that Cheney and the entire Jan. 6 committee should be jailed.
Cheney lost her seat in the 2022 primary to Trump-backed Harriet Hageman by more than 60,000 votes, according to election results.
Since leaving Congress, Cheney has continued to criticize MAGA Republicans and Trump.
“I think we have to take everything that Donald Trump says literally and seriously,” Cheney said in an interview with ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl in December.
“And I think that we saw, frankly, what he was willing to do already after the 2020 election in the lead up to Jan. 6, after Jan 6,” she continued. “People need to remember that when Donald Trump woke up on the morning of Jan. 6, he thought he was going to remain as president. And we saw the extent to which he was willing to attempt to seize power when he lost an election.”
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