From below:
“The first thing that we have to understand is that we’ve never been
where we are,” Cheney said. “We’ve never been in a phase, a place where
we’re facing this kind of a threat. And that’s because we’re facing a
threat from a former president who is attempting to unravel the Republic.”
and
She pointed to what she called “a growing Putin wing of the Republican
Party,” referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“And you see news outlets like Fox News, running propaganda," she said.
"You’ve watched it not just on Tucker Carlson’s show, although he is the
biggest propagandist for Putin on that network.
End excerpts.
https://news.yahoo.com/liz-cheney-says-arizona-gop-021835059.html
Associated Press
Liz Cheney says Arizona GOP candidates threaten democracy
BOB CHRISTIE
Wed, October 5, 2022 at 7:18 PM
PHOENIX (AP) — Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney on Wednesday said the Republican
candidates for Arizona governor and secretary of state pose a huge risk
for democracy because both say they will refuse to certify election
results if they don't like the results.
Cheney, a prominent critic of former President Donald Trump and one of
just 10 U.S. House Republicans who voted to impeach him after the Jan.
6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, made the comments at an event organized
by the McCain Institute at Arizona State University.
Cheney also leveled broadsides as what she said was a growing “Putin
wing” of the Republican Party who want America to withdraw from the
world stage and refuse to defend freedom in other countries.
She has spent a lot of time thinking about Arizona and the upcoming
elections here.
“In Arizona today you have a candidate for governor in Kari Lake, you
have a candidate for Secretary of State in Mark Finchem, both of whom
have said — this isn’t a surprise, it’s not a secret — they both said
that they will only honor the results of an election if they agree with
it,” Cheney told the audience filled with ASU students.
Video: Cheney says she would vote Democrat in Arizona gubernatorial
She said both looked at Trump's 2020 loss in Arizona, and both know that
it was carried out following state law, and that there were counts,
recounts, audits and court challenges that all went against Trump.
“They’ve looked at all of that, the law, the facts and the rulings, the
courts, and they’ve said it doesn’t matter to them,” Cheney said. “And
if you care about democracy, and you care about the survival of our
republic, then you need to understand, we all have to understand, that
we cannot give people power who have told us that they will not honor
elections.”
Cheney, who is vice chair of the House committee investigating the Jan.
6, 2021, attack on Congress and was trounced in Wyoming's Republican
primary as a result of her refusal to back Trump, spoke of what she
believes is a wider threat to the nation from a Republican Party that is
now fully in Trump's control.
“The first thing that we have to understand is that we’ve never been
where we are,” Cheney said. “We’ve never been in a phase, a place where
we’re facing this kind of a threat. And that’s because we’re facing a
threat from a former president who is attempting to unravel the Republic.”
Cheney, daughter of former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, spoke
of how 30 years ago she worked overseas for the International Republican
Institute when former Arizona Sen, John McCain chaired the group's
board. She said she saw firsthand how fragile some of those democracies
were.
“And I think I knew on some level that even in the United States this
was fragile,” she said. “But I certainly didn’t understand just how
fragile. I think that’s such an important lesson that we need to take
from history.”
Cheney, who said her first vote was for Ronald Reagan and is a
traditional conservative Republican who favors low taxes and
international engagement by the United States, also took shots at Fox
News Channel.
The issue came up after she was asked by the moderator, McCain Institute
Democracy Fellow Sofia Gross, about the meaning of patriotism.
Cheney said being a patriot means loving country more than whatever
political party someone belongs to.
“And that means that you put your love of country above politics, you
put it above your political career,” she said.
She said McCain stood for that idea that American is a nation based on
freedom, and that carries with it an obligation to help defend freedom
around the world.
“You can’t look at something like what’s happening today with Russia and
Ukraine, and say America is neutral in that,” Cheney said. “That’s a
frontline in the war of freedom and America must support Ukraine.”
She pointed to what she called “a growing Putin wing of the Republican
Party,” referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“And you see news outlets like Fox News, running propaganda," she said.
"You’ve watched it not just on Tucker Carlson’s show, although he is the
biggest propagandist for Putin on that network.
“And you really have to ask yourself ... whose side is Fox on in this
battle?" Cheney added. "And how could it be that you have a wing of the
Republican Party that thinks that America would be standing with Putin
as he conducts that brutal invasion of Ukraine?”
Cheney has floated the idea of running for president in 2024, if nothing
else than to serve as a foil if the former president runs again.