Lincoln Project founder Steve Schmidt said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) would lead a “clinic in patriotism” in the coming months during her role as the vice-chair of the House select committee investigating the January 6 riot at the Capitol.
Anchor Nicolle Wallace said, “I think Liz Cheney will reveal not just everyone that was involved in the conspiracy to overthrow the counting of the electoral votes for Joe Biden, she will reveal the cowardice of men like Mitch McConnell, who if he wasn’t a coward would be saying and doing all the same things Liz Cheney was. What separates Liz Cheney and Mitch McConnell isn’t their worldview. It isn’t even a view of Donald Trump or a certainty Donald Trump incited the insurrection. It is fear.”
Schmidt said, “We have this terrible moment of politics where there is no principle that you can find out there. We see all of these people, the Josh Hawleys, the Ted Cruzes, the people that have surrendered to this moment, to the nihilism of it, to the cynicism of it. Who have lied thousands of times to the American people? It’s all about the profit, and it’s all about the power.”
He continued, “So here you see, Liz Cheney, somebody who’s putting it all on the line, putting her career on the line, has earned a primary challenge, has been rebuked by the Wyoming state Republican Party, has earned the enmity of Donald Trump—for what? For saying we shouldn’t have a dictator in the United States, that the person who wins the election is the person who ought to be the president.”
Schmidt added, “I think in the months ahead, we’re going to see this clinic in patriotism and principle, by Liz Cheney, but also by Jamie Raskin, Chairman Thompson, and the others. This committee, as it’s functioning in its early days, is going to get to the bottom and lay this out for the American people. Liz Cheney is just someone who cannot be bought off, obviously cannot be dissuaded from her mission. I agree with her 110% when she defines this as the moral issue of our time. This goes to the heart of the American Republic being able to survive as a democracy past its 250th birthday, which is just a short five years away.”
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