The battle for the Republican Party is entering a new phase, and Rep. Liz Cheney sounded the first shot of it on Sunday evening.
We face a threat we have never faced before: a former president trying to undermine the republic. Cheney, a Wyoming Republican and Donald Trump's chief antagonist in the GOP, said in a speech Sunday night that at this moment we must all summon courage to stand against that.
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library presented Cheney with a Profile in Courage award. She was one of five people given the award, along with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and three other American officials from both parties who came under intense attack by Trump and his supporters after the 2020 election.
The week begins with a direct shot at Trump by Cheney, who referred to him as a current and ongoing threat to the republic.
The night before Republican voters go to the polls in Georgia, the former vice president will be at a rally with the governor. Kemp, a conservative Republican, refused to go along with Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the election.
Kemp appears poised to defeat Perdue, the hand-picked candidate for governor by Trump. Kemp will win the GOP nomination on Tuesday and avoid a second round of voting.
The former vice president's appearance with Kemp is his boldest move yet in his divorce from Trump. While still celebrating their administration's policy accomplishments, Pence has walked a careful line for months, at once trying to rebut Trump's lies about the election.
Observers have noticed a gradual increase in the willingness of Pence to rebuke Trump. The Georgia rally is the clearest sign yet that he is willing to do more than just poke at Trump, which is likely to pit the two men against each other.
Trump is launching a new offensive against Cheney after concluding that Georgia is a lost cause. He will travel to Wyoming on Saturday to campaign against Cheney.
Trump has tried to oust Republicans he deems insufficiently loyal to him in a number of contests this year. He wants to defeat Cheney in Wyoming's August 16 primary, the most outspoken Trump critic inside the GOP. Republicans who hope to move the Republican Party past Trump have coalesced around Cheney, raising money for her as she tries to stave off the former president's assault.
The congressional committee investigating the assault on the U.S. Capitol will hold a series of public hearings. One source told Yahoo News that the committee believes it can demonstrate to the public that Trump tried to overturn the election results through various means, and that he did not do anything during the insurrection.
The hearings will begin on June 9 and will be chaired by Cheney. She gave a speech at the Kennedy Library on Sunday, which was a preview of how she will explain the events of January 6.
Dick Cheney was the former Wyoming congressman and secretary of defense who became George W. Bush's vice president. She talked about her great-great-grandfather who was in the Civil War. The current crisis of democracy was depicted in the context of America's bloodiest conflict.
Since January 6, I have been thinking of my great-great-grandfather and the Union he fought to defend. She said that this was always true on the night of Jan. 6.
Cheney spoke about walking through the Capitol after pro-Trump rioters were expelled and defeated by law enforcement.
The House chamber was strewn with broken glass and furniture in an attempt to barricade against rioters. She narrated her walk through Statuary Hall, where Abraham Lincoln served in Congress, and talked about seeing police in tactical gear resting against statues, surrounded by empty water bottles scattered across the floor.
She talked about going to the Capitol Rotunda, where late presidents have lain in state, as a symbol of representative democracy. The rotunda is the most sacred space in our republic.
Cheney looked at the painting of George Washington resigning his commission as commander in chief of the Continental Army at the end of the Revolutionary War.
George Washington set an example of peaceful transfer of power in the country. This is what President Kennedy called a celebration of freedom, according to Cheney.
Kennedy said in his inaugural speech that a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger.
Today, that role is ours, Cheney said. Will we defend our constitution? Will we stand up for truth? Will we put duty to our oath above partisan politics? Will we look away from danger, ignore the threat, and allow the liar?
It was a strong speech against Trump and Trumpism, and it foretold the case Cheney will make against the former president in the weeks to come.
The cover photo illustration is for Yahoo News.
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