Outgoing U.S. Rep Liz Cheney (R-WY), who was thumped in her Republican primary last month, vowed Saturday night to “do everything [she] can” to stop Arizona voters from electing Republican Kari Lake to the governorship.
Cheney, who is the vice chair of the partisan, Democrat-led January 6 Select Committee, appeared as the final speaker for the Texas Tribune’s 2022 festival.
The three-day event included speakers like twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, establishment Republican strategist Karl Rove, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), and White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Cheney spoke with Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith and pledged to do all she could to stop Lake from winning the election.
“So are you going to campaign for Katie Hobbs, the Democratic candidate for governor in Arizona, as a result of that?” asked Smith.
“I am going to do everything I can to make sure Kari Lake is not elected,” Cheney responded.
“So, does that include campaigning for Democrats if that’s what it takes?” the CEO followed up, to which Cheney replied, “Yes.”
She also chastised Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) for campaigning for Lake, who she called a “dangerous” and an “election denier.”
“That’s the kind of thing we cannot see in our party, we cannot see an accommodation like that, and I think it’s very important we be clear about that,” she said.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) retweeted a video of the segment on Twitter and pointed out that “[i]n 2020, when Liz Cheney was the GOP House conference chair, she backed my primary opponent. I won that race 81% to 19%.”
Lake, who is backed by former President Donald J Trump, recently slammed a reporter who asked if she felt he was “dividing the country” “by falsely telling people he won that election when he lost it?”
“How does that divide the country? Questioning an election where there are obviously problems is dividing the country? Since when can we not ask questions about our elections?” wondered Lake, adding:
As a journalist for many years, I was a journalist after 2016 and I distinctly remember many people just like you asking a lot questions about the 2016 election results. And nobody tried to shut you up. Nobody tried to tell Hillary Clinton to shut up. Nobody tried to Kamala Harris when she was questioning the legitimacy of these electronic voting machines to stop.
We have freedom of speech in this country and you of all people should appreciate that. You’re supposedly a journalist, you should appreciate that. So, I don’t see how asking question about an election where there are many problems is dividing a country. What I do see as dividing a country is shutting people down, censoring people, canceling people, trying to destroy people’s lives when they do have questions.
Cheney was brutally beaten in her primary to secure renomination last month by Harriet Hageman. Hageman, who was endorsed by Trump, setting up the ultimate GOP proxy war, secured 113,079 votes, more than doubling Cheney’s 49,339.
In her concession speech, Cheney seemed to compare herself to the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, and hinted at a presidential run down the road, despite the resounding message she received from Wyomingites.