Cheney: Trump is inadequate for America's future 1:45
(CNN) —
Wyoming Republican Party Rep. Liz Cheney said Saturday at The Texas Tribune festival that if former President Donald Trump becomes the GOP's nominee for president in 2024, he will not remain a Republican.
“I will make sure that Donald Trump, I will do everything I can to make sure that he is not the candidate.
And if he is the candidate, I will not be a Republican,” Cheney said.
Cheney also stated that he will campaign for the Democrats to ensure that Republican candidates who promote electoral lies do not get elected.
Cheney was discussing the Arizona gubernatorial race and how he will work to ensure that Republican candidate Kari Lake, the former television journalist who has become one of the leading voices behind Trump's lies about voter fraud, is not elected. .
"I will do everything I can to make sure Kari Lake doesn't get elected," Cheney said.
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Asked if that includes campaigning for the Democrats, Cheney said: "Yes."
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Now, Cheney would not go so far as to say that he wants the Democrats to retain control of the House of Representatives after the midterm elections.
For Cheney there are many "bad policies" in the Biden administration, but he added: "However, I think it is very important, since voters are going to vote, that they recognize and understand what the Republican Conference in the House of Representatives consists of today".
Cheney's primary loss to Trump-backed attorney Harriet Hageman last month represented a significant milestone in the broader fight for the GOP's leadership.
Once seen as an up-and-comer, Cheney was ousted from the Republican leadership of the House of Representatives last year for her unwavering opposition to the former president.
She fell behind in the polls back home this year while helping lead the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
January 6 Commission: Liz Cheney said Trump had a "sophisticated seven-part plan" to nullify the election.
This is what he meant
As questions about her future political moves surfaced, Cheney continued to dodge the question of whether she will run for president in 2024.
"It's not about me or making a decision about what I'm going to do," he said.
"I will certainly do whatever it takes to make sure Donald Trump is nowhere near the Oval Office."
Cheney's advisers previously told CNN that he intends to wait until next year to make any decisions, when he is no longer in Congress or serving as vice chairman of the Jan. 6 House committee.
She is aware that she appears to politicize the commission's findings.
His role on the select committee, however, comes with the kind of attention that other Republican critics of Trump have struggled to find.
Cheney would face the same challenge when he leaves office in January, and a presidential bid may be the only way to address it.
On whether the House Jan. 6 committee, which will hold its next hearing next week, will talk to Trump before it concludes its investigation, Cheney said: "Let me just say that any interaction that Donald Trump has with the committee will be under oath and subject to penalties of perjury.
And on the position of the talks between the commission and former Vice President Mike Pence's legal adviser, Cheney said he believes Pence has an "obligation" to speak to the commission.
While she respects executive privilege, she believes that type of privilege is "not absolute."
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Cheney said the commission has not made a decision on whether to make a criminal referral to the Justice Department based on the panel's investigation, but when it comes time to make that decision, he believes it will be "unanimous."
He further shared that the commission received approximately 800,000 pages from the Secret Service in response to a subpoena and reiterated that the documents contain a lot of new information.
On whether text messages from certain Secret Service agents from the day before and during the attack on Capitol Hill disappeared, Cheney said: "The text messages themselves, in many cases, disappeared. There are other forms of communication, like team messages and emails. And other forms of communication and we've probably gotten at least 800,000 pages."
Cheney was also asked to share a memorable moment with his father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, since the attack on Capitol Hill, sharing that on New Year's Day this year, as he was leaving his house, he said to him, "Stand up for the republic, daughter" and said it was a moment she will never forget.
CNN's Gregory Krieg, Eric Bradner and Jeff Zeleny contributed to this report.
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