Is Liz Cheney’s anti-Trump campaign a principled crusade or cynical power-seeking?
Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) says she is committed to keeping Donald Trump from becoming president of the United States of America ever again. But so far she is not doing the most effective thing she can do — and she's running out of time to do it.
The only GOP candidate still standing with a reasonable chance of stopping Trump is Nikki Haley, who, polls show, would defeat President Biden in November. So why is Cheney not endorsing Haley now to help her vanquish Trump in this week’s critically decisive New Hampshire primary?
A Trump victory in New Hampshire would severely hurt Haley’s prospects going forward — the race would be effectively over. Cheney’s solution? She says she would encourage Republicans to vote for Joe Biden, the incumbent Democratic nominee, in November.
“I disagree with a lot of Biden’s policies,” she said on "The View" last week. “We can survive bad policies. We cannot survive torching the Constitution."
It’s hard to imagine Republican voters holding their nose and voting for a second Biden term. Cheney, who was voted out of office after serving on the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol — and seems about ready to write off the entire GOP — surely knows this as well as anyone.
What’s more, she’s entirely overlooking a serious challenge from the No Labels independent group, which has brandished such heavyweight names as Larry Hogan, Joe Manchin and even Haley if she does not make it in the GOP primary.
Such a stance from a brilliant political strategist is either extraordinarily obtuse or entirely disingenuous — and it appears to be the latter. Cheney has said she would consider an independent run for the presidency, and will watch things play out for a few more months before determining her course.
It may be that Cheney has already resigned herself to another four years of a Biden-Harris administration and has her sights set on 2028. Biden VP Kamala Harris may have to take over by then, making her the first woman president, but Cheney could still become the first elected female president — a singular achievement in its own right. Is personal ambition clouding Cheney’s vision on saving the country from both Trump and Biden/Harris? Or does she hope to replace Harris on the ticket with Biden?
If Cheney does not do all she can to help Haley now, she diminishes the last best hope for the Republican Party to stop Donald Trump. Other anti-Trump Republicans such as Chris Christie and Adam Kinzinger should immediately join with her in a concerted effort to save the party — and the country — by rallying around Haley, the only non-Trump alternative left in the arena with a path to the nomination.
Liz Cheney should endorse Haley and invite disaffected Democrats to join with disaffected Republicans and help dump Trump, now. They can always go back to their political roots and vote for Biden in November. But in the meantime, the country and our democracy will have been saved by keeping the former president from becoming the Republican nominee.
As for No Labels itself, its members should follow the example of co-founder Hogan and endorse Haley, avoiding the burden of fielding their own candidate to avoid a Biden-Trump rematch.
Whatever happens, it must happen now — before it is too late.
Joseph Bosco served as China country director for the secretary of Defense from 2005 to 2006 and as Asia-Pacific director of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief from 2009 to 2010. He served in the Pentagon when Vladimir Putin invaded Georgia and was involved in Department of Defense discussions about the U.S. response. Follow him on Twitter @BoscoJosephA.