Cheney: Trump ‘Ought to Be Disqualified from Holding Office in the Future’

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that she believed former President Donald Trump should be “disqualified” from holding office because he allegedly incited an insurrection.

Partial transcript as follows:

MARGARET BRENNAN: The Supreme Court is going to take on that Colorado case, where the state was going to remove him from the ballot citing insurrection and the 14th Amendment. The Special Counsel Jack Smith, charged Donald Trump with a number of things, insurrection was not one of them. So given that it doesn’t meet that Justice Department standard, do you think the Supreme Court will ultimately disqualify Trump?

CHENEY: We’ll see what happens in the courts. If you look at the Select Committee’s work, we made a criminal referral with respect to the part of the 14th amendment that talks about providing aid and comfort to an insurrection. I certainly believe that Donald Trump’s behavior rose to that level, I believe that he ought to be disqualified from holding office in the future. It’s working its way through the courts. And in the meantime, and in any case, we have to be prepared to ensure that we can defeat him at the ballot box, which ultimately I believe we’ll be able to do.

BRENNAN: The Supreme Court may ultimately hear it but right now, the DC Circuit will be taking on this question of presidential immunity from criminal prosecution this Tuesday. Lindsey Graham was on this program, the senator, last Sunday saying no one’s immune from prosecution, but presidents do have immunity in order to do their job. And he said Trump just gave a fiery speech. As a conservative, what do you make of this and the broader argument that this will be undermining presidential immunity?

CHENEY: Look, I think that there’s no basis for an assertion that the President of the United States is completely immune from criminal prosecution for acts in office. And I suspect that that’s what the Court will hold. I think it’s really important for people as they’re looking at all of this litigation to recognize what Donald Trump’s trying to do. He’s trying to suppress the evidence. He’s trying to delay his trial, because he doesn’t want people to see the witnesses will testify against him. And we just saw again, this morning news reports that Dan Scavino, Pat Cipollone, testimony that they have apparently given in front of the grand jury, that once again confirms, you know, what we were able to discover in the select committee confirms that Donald Trump did not want to tell people to go home, did not want to tell the mob to leave the capitol, that he watched the attack on television. And Trump knows that the witnesses in his trial are not his political opponents. He knows that they’re going to be the people who are closest to him, the people that he appointed, and he doesn’t want the American people to see that evidence before they vote. They have a right to see that evidence before they vote. And so I think it’s very important he not be able to delay his trial

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