Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney called Donald Trump “depraved” and mocked his “spray tan” while campaigning for the first time for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
Cheney joined Harris on stage in Ripon, Wisconsin — considered the birthplace of the Republican Party — and called on her fellow Republicans to cross the aisle and vote for a Democrat, one whom she previously called a “radical leftist.”
“I assure you, I have never voted for a Democrat, but this year I will proudly vote for Vice President Kamala Harris,” Cheney said, then echoed Harris-Walz’s campaign slogan: “we’re not backing down.” ‘
The ousted Wyoming lawmaker noted how, as a 10-year-old, she was stamping envelopes for Republican President Gerald Ford’s re-election campaign, cast her first vote for Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1984, served in both Bush administrations and was the third most important powerful member of the Republican Party in the House.
“In other words, I was a Republican even before Donald Trump started spray tanning,” she said, drawing laughter.
Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris (left) was joined on the campaign trail by former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney (right), who endorsed Harris last month. In her comments, Cheney attacked former President Donald Trump on January 6.
Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney called former President Donald Trump “depraved” and mocked his “spray tan” while campaigning for the first time for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris (left) and former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney (right) greet each other on stage during a campaign event at Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin. Ripon is the birthplace of the Republican Party
The rest of his speech had a much more serious tone.
He talked about how “the most conservative of conservative values is fidelity to the Constitution,” something Trump failed to demonstrate when he tried to overturn the election four years ago.
“In this election, putting patriotism before partisanship is not an aspiration, it is our duty,” Cheney said.
Cheney, one of only two Republican members of the House Select Committee on January 6, recalled how when Trump was informed that the angry mob outside the Capitol on January 6 wanted to hang Vice President Mike Pence, he said: ” And?”
“He said, ‘So what?'” she repeated, eliciting “nooooooos” from the crowd.
He said Trump’s closest aides also provided this information.
“They said that while the attack on our Capitol was happening, Donald Trump was given a note informing him that a civilian had been shot outside the United States House of Representatives,” Cheney recalled. “Donald Trump left the note on the table in front of him, continued watching the attack on television, and still refused to tell the mob to leave the Capitol.”
“That is depravity and we should never become desensitized to it,” he said.
She reminded the audience that 20 years ago, when she was campaigning for her father’s re-election, he and President George W. Bush considered themselves “compassionate conservatives.”
“What January 6 shows us is that there is not one ounce, not one ounce of compassion in Donald Trump,” he said. “He is mean, vindictive and cruel.”
“And Donald Trump is unfit to lead this good, great nation,” the former House member added.
Cheney’s comments Thursday marked a shift from four years ago, when she referred to Harris as a “radical leftist.”
When Harris was elected President Joe Biden’s vice president, Cheney criticized the choice, saying the then-California senator had a “more liberal voting record than Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.”
Cheney warned that Harris’s liberal positions on abortion, immigration and health care “would be devastating to America,” in an August 2020 tweet.
However, Cheney announced in September that she would vote for Harris after being unseated by Wyoming voters for becoming the most prominent anti-Trump Republican in Congress.
The move comes four years after Cheney criticized Harris for being a “radical leftist” whose views on abortion, immigration and health care “would be devastating to America.”
“And as a conservative and as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this, and because of the danger that Donald Trump represents, not only will I not vote for Donald Trump, I will vote for Kamala Harris.” ‘ he said in a presentation at Duke University in North Carolina, a vital swing state.
Days later he revealed that his father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, would also vote for Harris.
“Dick Cheney will vote for Kamala Harris,” he said at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin.
That move prompted Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, now one of the former president’s leading critics, to reconsider his plan to write down Dick Cheney’s name, although he said Thursday on CNN that he would not go so far as to pick a ticket for Harris.
While Cheney’s fellow Republican on the House Select Committee on Jan. 6, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who took the stage in August at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, had not appeared publicly for the Harris campaign until Thursday.
She excused her absence from the convention because “I wanted to make the announcement, to make it in a way that was not connected to the partisan politics of the moment.”
“I was also in London at the Taylor Swift concert,” Cheney confessed.
Swift also endorsed Harris in September.
Ripon is important because the one-room schoolhouse, built in 1853, is a National Historic Landmark for its role as a meeting place that helped form the Republican Party in 1854.
Harris’ campaign is trying to draw Republican and independent voters away from Trump, playing its part on Jan. 6 and refusing to admit she lost the 2020 election — the same reasons Cheney, Kinzinger and other former Trump advisers They say they don’t support him.
Those attacks received new fuel this week after Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, refused to answer a question posed by Harris’ vice president pick, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, during the vice presidential debate. on Tuesday night.
Walz asked Vance who won the 2020 election.
‘Tim, I’m focused on the future. Did Kamala Harris censor Americans from speaking their minds in the wake of the 2020 Covid situation? Vance responded.
Walz scoffed, calling that a “damn lack of response.”
Additionally, on Wednesday, special counsel Jack Smith revealed surprising new evidence in a new filing for Trump’s Jan. 6 federal case.
The 165-page document presents Trump’s efforts to claim victory regardless of the actual result as a plot by a private individual to steal the election, trying to circumvent the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling.
Allies and advisers are quoted as saying they wanted to “sow confusion” about the election result, with instructions to “make them riot.”