Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) said Monday on CNN’s “The Lead” that Donald Trump’s refusal to concede his defeat in the 2020 presidential election put the nation in a dangerous “no man’s land.”
CNN anchor Jake Tapper asked about New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman’s new book claiming that Trump planned to stay at the White House after the election.
Cheney said, “I obviously haven’t seen her book, but sometimes people will say, ‘Well, you know, what happened wasn’t that big a deal because if Mike Pence had rejected a slate of electors, the Supreme Court would have sorted it out. There are a lot of ways people sort of say this wasn’t as dangerous as it really was. And when you hear something like that, I think you have to recognize that we were in no man’s land and territory we’ve never been in before as a nation.”
She added, “When you think about, well, the Supreme Court would have sorted it out, you have to ask yourself, but who would have enforced the rulings of the court? And if you have a president who’s refusing to leave the White House or who’s saying he refuses to leave the White House, then anyone who sort of stands aside and says someone else will handle it is themselves putting the nation at risk. It is clear that when you were at the moment that we faced, everyone had to stand up and take responsibility. And I think that’s not surprising that those are the sentiments that he reportedly expressed. I think, again, it just affirms the reality of the danger.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN