Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney called Donald Trump ‘depraved’ and mocked his ‘spray-tanning’ as she campaigned for the first time for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
Cheney joined Harris onstage in Ripon, Wisconsin – considered the birthplace of the Republican Party – and asked her fellow Republicans to cross the aisle and vote for a Democrat, one she previously called a ‘radical leftist.’
‘I tell you, I have never voted for a Democrat, but this year, I am proudly casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris,’ Cheney said, then echoed the Harris-Walz campaign slogan, ‘we’re not going back.’
The ousted Wyoming lawmaker noted how she, as a 10-year-old, was sealing envelopes for Republican President Gerald Ford’s reelection campaign, cast her first vote for Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1984, served in both Bush administrations and served as the third most powerful GOP member in the House.
‘In other words, I was a Republican even before Donald Trump started spray-tanning,’ she said, garnering laughs.
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 remarks, Cheney went after former President Donald Trump over January 6
Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney called former President Donald Trump ‘depraved’ and mocked his ‘spray-tanning’ as she campaigned for the first time for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris
Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris (left) and former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney (right) greet each other onstage during a campaign event a Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin. Ripon is the birthplace of the Republican Party
The rest of her speech was far more serious in tone.
She talked about how the ‘most conservative of conservative values is fidelity to the Constitution,’ something Trump didn’t show when he tried to overturn the election four years ago.
‘In this election, putting patriotism ahead of partisanship is not an aspiration, it is our duty,’ Cheney said.
Cheney, one of only two GOP 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 uttered, ‘So what?’
‘He said, “So what?”‘ she repeated, cuing ‘nooooooos’ from the crowd.
She said that Trump’s closest aides provided other damning anecdotes as well.
‘They said while the attack on our capitol was happening Donald Trump was handed a note informing him that a civilian had been shot at the door of the chamber of the United States of Representatives,’ Cheney recalled. ‘Donald Trump put the note down on the table in front of him, continued to watch the atttack on television and still refused to tell the mob to leave the Capitol.’
‘That is depravity and we must never become numb to it,’ she said.
She reminded the audience that 20 years ago, when she was campaigning for her father’s reelection bid, he and President George W. Bush considered themselves ‘compassionate conservatives.’
‘What January 6 shows us is that there is not an ounce, not an ounce of compassion in Donald Trump,’ she said. ‘He is petty, he is vindictive and he is cruel.’
‘And Donald Trump is not fit to lead this good and great nation,’ the former House member added.
Harris reiterated that point when she joined the Republican onstage.
‘I believe that anyone who recklessly tramples on our democratic values as Donald Trump has, anyone who has actively and violentely obstructed the will of the people and the peaceful transfer of power as Donald Trump has, anyone who has called for – I quote “termination of the Constitution of the United States” as Donald Trump has, must never again stand behind the seal of the president of the United States,’ Harris said.
Harris pointed out that most Americans agree that ‘upholding the Constitution’ must be a ‘basic requirement’ of the president.
‘If you share that view, no matter your political party, there is a place for you with us and in this campaign,’ the Democratic vice president said.
Both Harris – and later President Joe Biden from the White House – praised Cheney for her ‘courage’ Thursday night.
Cheney, Harris said, ‘recognizes that character is among the most important attributes of leadership.’
‘But she also personifies that attribute,’ Harris went on. ‘And she possesses some of the qualities of character that I most respect in any individual and any leader – courage.’
‘Especially at a moment like this,’ the VP continued. ‘Where there are so many powerful forces that have been intent on trying to demean and belittle and make people afraid.’
Harris called Cheney a ‘leader who puts country above party and above self, a true patriot.’
‘And it is my profound honor to have your support,’ Harris said, also thanking Cheney’s father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, who also endorsed the Democrat.
Cheney’s comments Thursday were a departure from four years ago when she referred to Harris as a ‘radical leftist.’
When Harris was picked to be President Joe Biden’s VP, Cheney blasted the choice saying the then-California senator had a ‘more liberal voting record than Bernie Sanders & Elizabeth Warren.’
Cheney warned that Harris’ liberal positions on abortion, immigration and healthcare ‘would be devastating for America,’ in a tweet from August 2020.
However Cheney announced in September that she would be voting for Harris after being ousted by Wyoming voters over becoming Congress’ most prominent anti-Trump Republican.
The move comes four years after Cheney blasted Harris as being a ‘radical leftists’ whose views on abortion, immigration and healthcare ‘would be devastating for America’
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‘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 poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump but I am voting for Kamala Harris,’ she said at an appearance at Duke University in North Carolina, a vital swing state.
Days later she revealed that her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, would be casting a ballot for Harris too.
‘Dick Cheney will be voting for Kamala Harris,’ she said at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin.
That move prompted Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton – now a top critic of the ex-president – to reconsider his plan to write-in Dick Cheney’s name – though he said Thursday on CNN that he wouldn’t go as far as to cast a ballot for Harris.
While Cheney’s fellow Republican member of the House Select Committee on January 6, ex-Rep. Adam Kinzinger, took the stage in August at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, until Thursday she hadn’t appeared publicly for the Harris campaign.
She excused her convention absence because ‘I wanted to make the announcement, to do it in a way that wasn’t connected to the party politics of the moment.’
‘I also happened to be in London at the Taylor Swift concert,’ Cheney confessed.
Swift also endorsed Harris in September.
Ripon is significant because the one-room schoolhouse there, built in 1853, is a National Historic Landmark for its role as being the site of meetings that helped form the Republican Party in 1854.
The Harris campaign is trying to peel away Republican and independent voters from Trump, playing up his role in January 6 and refusal to admit he lost the 2020 election – the same reasons Cheney, Kinzinger and other ex-Trump aides say they’re not supporting him.
Those attacks were given new fuel this week after Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, refused to answer a question posed by Harris’ VP pick, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, during Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate.
Walz asked Vance who won the 2020 election.
‘Tim, I’m focused on the future. Did Kamala Harris censor Americans from speaking their mind in the wake of the 2020 Covid situation?’ Vance replied.
Walz scoffed and called that a ‘damning non-answer.’
Additionally on Wednesday, Special Counsel Jack Smith unveiled stunning new evidence in a fresh filing for Trump’s federal January 6 case.
The 165-page filing casts Trump’s efforts to claim victory regardless of the actual result as a plot by a private individual to steal the election, trying to get around the Supreme Court’s immunity decision.
Allies and aides are quoted as saying they wanted to ‘sow confusion’ about the election result, with instructions to ‘make them riot.’