Newsweek Oped: Liz Cheney Resents Donald Trump for ‘Stealing the GOP’

WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 10: Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) speaks during a news conference with
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Wendell Husebø

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) resents former President Donald Trump for stealing her political inheritance of policy leader of the Republican Party, Johnathan Tobin penned in Newsweek on Tuesday.

Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, has grown increasingly fixated on fighting Trump because the former president has reshaped the Republican Party toward American First principles and away from the uni-party establishment, Tobin asserted.

“[H]er animus toward Trump is rooted in resentment for stealing the GOP out from under her and other members of the old establishment,” Tobin wrote. “Already out of touch with the base because of her enthusiasm for disastrous wars and distinct lack of interest in the social and economic issues that grassroots Republicans care about, Cheney’s hopes to continue as a party leader were already finished.”

Tobin slammed Cheney for allying herself with the Democrats’ partisan January 6 Committee, which he said was a deliberate plan to “elevate herself” above what would have been impossible under the shadow of Trump.

Though she says her actions are ‘the most important thing I’ve ever done’ and therefore worth the sacrifice of her career,” Tobin continued, “Cheney’s decision to lead the Democrats’ witch hunt is actually a way to elevate herself into the status of national heroine, which she could never have otherwise achieved.”

Tobin hinted Cheney’s plan to increase her estranged political brand will make her a celebrity with Democrats on CNN or MSNBC, which she may join as a “talking head” after she loses her GOP primary on August 16.

“Far from ending her career, Cheney has started a new one,” Tobin outlined. “Becoming the Left’s favorite ex-Republican guarantees that she will remain a celebrity, with a possible future as a quixotic—though well-funded—presidential candidate in 2024 as well as a talking head on CNN or MSNBC.”

Tobin’s trashing of Cheney comes as the Wyoming representative is trailing Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman by 30 points and is likely to lose. Hageman has surged with second quarter fundraising by capitalizing off Cheney’s alliance with the Democrats on the partisan January 6 Committee.

Cheney’s potential loss to Hageman would put Cheney on the outskirts of Republican politics. Yet the establishment media is hyping a 2024 run by Cheney, who CNN’s editor-at-large, Chris Cillizza, claims could run as an independent to hurt Trump’s potential chances of reclaiming the White House in 2024. Cheney has proposed never to allow Trump near the White House ever again.

“Assuming Trump is the Republican nominee, such a candidacy could skim off enough votes to potentially hamstring the former President’s chances of winning,” Cillizza wrote. “Even under that scenario, however, Cheney would function as a spoiler — trying to keep Trump from the White House — rather than as a viable candidate to be president.”

According to polling, only two percent of Republicans support Cheney’s potential GOP primary bid, falling well short of Trump’s dominating polling lead at 53 percent.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. 

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.