In my last post, I asked why is former President Trump so hated? Why do his opponents stop at nothing to keep him from running again? Why do they justify using disreputable tactics?
https://seek-the-truth.com/2022/08/13/trump-raid-demonstrates-we-live-in-a-banana-republic/
Today I ask why has Representative Cheney simply joined the baying crowd out for blood?
First, Regarding President Trump
Nobody should be above the law, but more burdens have been placed on Trump than on other citizens. We are told he took home classified information, nuclear secrets no less, but the search warrant was for any document created between January 2017 and January 2021. Are they looking for specific documents or do they just want all he has? This is also a violation of the president’s fourth amendment rights as well as a violation of attorney-client privilege.
The Presidential Records Act (PRA) has been cited as well, but the PRA does not define how a president is to return records to the National Archives, nor does it provide any deadline. It certainly does not say a criminal investigation or a search warrant are legitimate avenues for obtaining records; it also grants that a president is entitled to have access to all these documents at any time, not that they should be taken from his home and he should be denied further access. The PRA also makes no distinction between classified and unclassified documents, meaning the ex-president is allowed classified access.
https://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/laws/1978-act.html
- Places the responsibility for the custody and management of incumbent Presidential records with the President.
- Establishes in law that any incumbent Presidential records (whether textual or electronic) held on courtesy storage by the Archivist remain in the exclusive legal custody of the President and that any request or order for access to such records must be made to the President, not NARA.
- Establishes a process by which the President may restrict and the public may obtain access to these records after the President leaves office; specifically, the PRA allows for public access to Presidential records through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) beginning five years after the end of the Administration, but allows the President to invoke as many as six specific restrictions to public access for up to twelve years.
Other presidents negotiated with the archivists for the return of records; dramatic confrontational methods have never been employed before, and would have been universally condemned if applied to other presidents. Should we also search President Obama’s records? Would that be tolerated? It is a virtual certainty he too has classified documents in his possession.
The PRA provides wide latitude to the president, but privileges given prior presidents have been ignored by the current administration. Who is the one acting badly here?
Furthermore, our media made it incumbent on Trump to prove he didn’t instigate the January 6 riot. Urging supporters to “peacefully and patriotically protest” is not good enough. That’s just a clever ploy to fool those of us too stupid or too loyal to discern his true motives. I received the following comment similar to many echoed in our media:
To me Trump has ever stood out as an opportunist, that is precisely the type of person who would instigate even violence to achieve a goal, but stand clear to have perfect deniability and only step in to pick the fruits, if everything went as he wished
Out of the other sides of their mouths, the media tells us Trump failed his IQ test. Make up your minds Trump haters: is he too clever to be caught or is he too stupid to know anything? Still, the relevant question is: how did he instigate violence? He executed a magical escape in full public view and hid his tracks completely?
President Trump was also supposedly outwitted by Putin who helped steal the 2016 election. AG Sessions stepped aside; Democrats had free reign to investigate this election for two years, but the proof was not quite enough. Despite being outwitted by Putin, Trump then outwitted our media and liberals to avoid being held accountable. How so? Perhaps, the simpler explanation is that he didn’t steal the 2016 election at all.
There were indeed some unflattering tidbits in the Mueller report, but nothing criminal, nothing worthy of impeachment; they couldn’t prove he stole an election, so they found another excuse for impeachment. He was impeached for something far removed because the goal all along was to impeach, any charge would do. The word impeachment was raised even before Trump was sworn in January 2017.
Here is my simple standard: if you make a claim about Trump, provide reasons for your claim. I can’t find anyone in my circle to meet that challenge. None provided a credible response to describe why Trump is a Soviet style leader. They just know it instinctively and if I don’t recognize how awful he is, I must be the problem. I just can’t see the facts, facts that they somehow are unable to articulate. It is not so fruitful for them to debate one who demands something resembling proof.
Liz Cheney:
Cheney has become the new anti-Trump; she raised her own stature via criticism of Trump. After Cheney lost the Wyoming Republican primary, the media hailed her because she stood up to her party and sacrificed her seat in Congress for her principles. Finally, they tell us, here is a Republican who will do what is right, despite the cost to her political career. Mind you, all the praise for Cheney comes from Democrats. Doing the “right thing” appears to mean agreeing with Democrats exclusively. She had a House leadership position, and could have done much to influence the party internally, but she chose a different direction.
When forced to choose between political expediency and ethicality, however, Cheney and Kinzinger opted to fight — for the soul of the Republican Party, for the tenets of American democracy and, most important, for the American people.
This article is typical of the Democrat narrative: Republicans on the J6 committee are brave and courageous for standing up to their party and to Trump. As I said earlier, the J6 committee is not about uncovering the truth. Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz called it a “one-sided basketball game”.
Cheney is like one of my buddies who puts labels on Trump without the requisite detail. In reality, Cheney’s reasons for disliking Trump seem personal, not principled. She could have criticized her party and still retained her seat. She burned all bridges instead. She paints herself as the martyr today, but she was in the Republican leadership and voted for Trump’s agenda for four years. Why the dramatic flip-flop in 2021?
Representative Cheney joined the January 6 committee, something only one of the other ten Republicans who voted to impeach were willing to do. Couldn’t Speaker Pelosi get any of the other eight to join the committee? There were Republican slots open. Perhaps the other eight were the more principled ones, unwilling to stand alongside the Speaker for what has essentially become a mosh-pit to bash Trump (along with all Republicans in office, and all people who ever voted for Trump or ever said a nice thing about him). Cheney made her bones by criticizing Trump. It has been her one-hit wonder and she will continue to play it to her advantage.
Cheney is continuing her all-out war against Trump even after leaving Congress. She has no future within the Republican Party, but wants to remain relevant in politics, so the next natural step is become a Democrat. She is on her way:
https://news.yahoo.com/liz-cheney-support-democrats-races-154453457.html
Representative Liz Cheney (R., Wyo.) on Sunday said she plans to support Democratic candidates in their races against Republicans who are denying the results of the 2020 election after she lost her own primary election in a landslide last week.
Many conservatives are critical of Trump and the Republican party. However, they don’t criticize in a way which endears them to the Democrat party as Representative Cheney did. Folks like me who have voted Republican forever, very much want change in the party. The leadership of McConnell, McCarthy, and Cornyn along with phony Republicans like Romney, Murkowski, Collins, and so many others is just abysmal. They are not representative of the rank and file in any way. The Republican political class appears to despise its voters and rarely lives up to its promises. I can agree with some liberal assessments of the current crop of Republican politicians, including some criticisms of Trump, but look at their own leadership as well. We vote Republican only because the alternatives, Democrats and turncoat Republicans like Representative Cheney, are even worse.
Despite support for Trump among Republicans, we have concerns about his many character flaws. He speaks too imprecisely and too impulsively; we often agree with the positions he takes, but not always with the manner he defends them. I don’t like the way President Trump spoke of Senator McCain’s war record or made up stories about Senator Ted Cruz’s father. President Trump didn’t stand up to Dr. Fauci and let his reign of terror continue another two years. Many of us believe the election was stolen in 2020, but we have concerns about how he went about proving the case (for more on the election https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rigged-mollie-hemingway/1139396959. Read my prior post as well: https://seek-the-truth.com/2022/02/24/was-the-election-rigged/).
Despite recognizing Trump’s flaws, we don’t jump on the Democrat’s J6 bandwagon or follow their outlandish theories regarding the 2016 election as Representative Cheney does. We’re not looking for the plaudits and new found respect from the opposition as she is.
The Real Problem
Trump is supported because he doesn’t follow establishment politics, the establishment that delayed fighting Roe v. Wade for so long because it was too controversial while Trump brought the end of Roe v Wade. Senator McConnell has been absolutely dreadful. He retains power and uses the considerable funds at his disposal to support candidates loyal to him. He would rather lose a Senate race to Democrats than lose his leadership position. We cringe at Trump’s words, but he tackles topics McConnell and others avoid. Trump exposed the media for the frauds they are while McConnell cuts deals with them. Trump won without the disdain so many other Republican leaders have for the party base. Trump followed through on campaign promises, a rarity in politics. People are drawn to Trump because he is so unlike Senator McConnell, the prototypical slimy politician. Prestige and position have become more important than issues the base cares about; this is the bigger problem within the Republican Party.
Representative Cheney appears to grasp none of this. She was happy in Republican leadership, and now she wants to remain relevant still. She remains relevant today only by aligning with Democrats now. President Trump is a far more popular figure than these Cheney or McConnell for reasons outlined above, not because we are blindly following wherever Trump leads us (such claims are so offensive and ridiculous).
Conservative media outlets such as The Blaze and Daily Wire, offer considerable criticism of both Republicans and Trump. High-profile Daily Wire CEO, Ben Shapiro, is also skeptical of Trump’s claims of election fraud; he comments on it often; however, Shapiro hasn’t lost his standing among conservatives because he remains critical of Democrat policies, double standards and hypocrisy, including their double standards on elections. Shapiro’s criticism of Trump does not endear him to the Left because he does not offer them in the same way as Representative Cheney.
Cheney says nothing of the Democrats’ own problems. It is no longer in her interest to criticize those praising her today. Acknowledging problems on all sides will hurt her new found cause of attacking Trump and “election deniers”. Cheney plays the game, she played it while in House leadership.
How about these “election deniers”? Stacy Abrams lost by her first gubernatorial bid by 50,000 votes, yet every Democrat of note declared her the true governor of Georgia for four years. She sat on a panel of Democrat Governors during the 2020 Democrat convention. Trump lost Georgia by 11,000 votes, far fewer than Abrams. Why is Abrams’ claim considered more legitimate in certain circles? Hillary Clinton offered every excuse under the sun for losing the 2016 election to Trump (voter suppression, Russia, Russia, Russia, misogyny, the FBI, Facebook, on and on). Two years of the Mueller investigation were about the phony evidence her campaign planted in the media and with the FBI. All of it, was an effort to legitimize Hillary Clinton’s claims about the 2016 election. More states were contested by Democrats on January 6, 2017 than were contested by Republicans on January 6, 2021. Does anyone notice the media fails to mention this fact?
Our election was hijacked. There is no question. Congress has a duty to #ProtectOurDemocracy & #FollowTheFacts.— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) May 16, 2017
I don’t mind Cheney’s criticisms of Trump’s election claims, but why does she ignore all the other instances? I disagree with Shapiro’s election critique as well, but he is a bit smarter, less opportunistic than she, and far more right about everything else.
Why does Cheney also give a pass to the current administration? President Biden in his inaugural speech talked about national unity, but as the next election approaches, his rhetoric is divisive once again. President Biden condemns large portions of the American people to salvage a few more votes. Who exactly is the problem here?
“Trump and the extreme MAGA Republicans have made their choice,” Biden said to the party faithful. “To go backwards, full of anger, violence, hate and division.
“MAGA Republicans don’t just threaten our personal rights and economic security,” Biden said. “They are a threat to our very democracy. They refuse to accept the will of the people. They embrace — embrace — political violence. They don’t believe in democracy.”
These are absolute lies from the current president. Liz Cheney ignores this divisive and untrue language. Millions like me supported Trump while also supporting personal rights, economic security, and democracy. This kind of language is tearing the country apart.
Cheney’s rhetoric today is self-serving. She leveled criticism of Republicans by echoing the talking points of the Democrat party and joining in unmerited attacks on Donald Trump via her position on the J6 committee. This is not the only way, and indeed not the most effective way, to influence the Republican Party. It is merely the way she has stumbled upon to serve her own interests.
It’s Personal
Representative Cheney is also supporting her father and the Bushes in all this. President Trump is disliked within this circle because of his attacks on Jeb Bush during the 2016 campaign and his frequent criticism of the Bush administration. Representative Cheney is defending her father’s honor, but why with this alignment? The Democrat party savaged her father for the eight years he was VP (far more than Trump ever did). Years later, Hollywood liberals made a unflattering movie (Vice) about him, one which painted him as a power hungry man with few principles. Now the Left has new-found respect for the Cheneys, but only because daughter Liz is publicly critical of Trump (while ignoring the Democrats own problems).
What else have the Cheney’s done to earn Democrat esteem? Upon losing her Congressional race, Representative Cheney invoked the name of Trump yet again:
I have said since Jan. 6 that I will do whatever it takes to ensure Donald Trump is never again anywhere near the Oval Office — and I mean it,
Two years ago, I won this primary with 73% of the vote. I could easily have done the same again. The path was clear. But it would have required that I go along with President Trump’s lie about the 2020 election. It would have required that I enable his ongoing efforts to unravel our democratic system and attack the foundations of our republic — that was a path I could not and would not take.
No House seat, no office in this land, is more important than the principles that we are all sworn to protect, and I well understood the potential political consequences of abiding by my duty.
Cheney says she is standing up for democracy, but pretends she is the only Republican doing so and her method of attacking Trump is the only way to prove your bona fides. What other example of defending principles and democracy does she provide? Attacks on Trump have brought her glowing praise and she will continue to play them up.
President Trump had many accomplishments during four years: he defeated ISIS in Iraq (don’t forget this was significant issue in the 2016 campaign); he moved the Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, something every one of his predecessors said they would do but did not; he cut taxes and regulations which led to the best economy in most of our lifetimes and historic low unemployment rates (including the best ever for women, Hispanics, and blacks); he negotiated four historic Middle East peace deals; he kept us out of a war, the first to do so in a long time; he dealt with the Chinese head-on and in a way no president has done in recent times; he got us out of an awful deal with Iran; he exposed the media for the awful frauds they are and always have been (and they hated him for it); he was first president to speak at the March for Life and he brought us three justices who ended the awful Roe v Wade decision, and he made the US energy independent. Let’s not forget he built a wall as well.
You may not agree these are positive accomplishments, but please recognize he made promises and kept them. Liz Cheney won’t acknowledge any of these accomplishments today. She also will not criticize the current administration and its plethora of ethical problems. Something has gone astray.
Abe Lincoln?
Cheney also compared herself to Abe Lincoln; it is a farcical comparison.
Lincoln lost his Senate race because of his criticism of Stephen Douglas and slavery. He later won the presidency because he maintained this principled stand. Lincoln saved the nation and ended the abomination of slavery (there’s a mention of slavery which others have accused folks like me of whitewashing). Cheney, on the other hand, lost because of her criticism of the party leader and her support of the opposition party (a poor strategy for winning), She couldn’t win a primary in a solid Republican state; in fact, she lost by the largest margin of any incumbent (in any state) in the last 100 years. Her political career is dead. Neither party will vote for her: Democrats don’t want a former Republican House leader and Republicans have already rejected her lunacy. Where is the similarity with Lincoln? How is she to make her own comeback as Lincoln did? What is it about all our current politicians that makes thing such egotists?
What is her plan to shape the country? Her only apparent goal at the moment appears to be to defeat Trump and deny him a return to office. Don Lemon reached out to her and pined about how great it would to have her join their elite group. Yeah, joining CNN is what Lincoln would have done were he around today. She finally took a job as a professor now. God help our children. https://nypost.com/2023/03/02/liz-cheney-lands-gig-with-university-of-virginia-as-she-mulls-2024-run/
The truth is CNN and the Democrats used Cheney to undermine the Republicans they don’t like. Cheney was not smart enough to see she is being manipulated.
Clay Travis tells us what the new Lincoln, the new patron saint of the Democrats, will do next:
Donald Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, says her uncle “will burn it all down to avoid losing the election.” However, Liz Cheney may be the kind of person Mary Trump described; she will burn it all down to keep President Trump from winning re-election. Why should she be anyone’s hero?
Update 4/4/2023:
Cheney is still in the mix of potential 2024 Republican candidates. She could rival Asa Hutchinson for the progressive Republican vote. Nobody cares if she runs or not. We will ignore her from now on.
Cheney’s arch nemesis, President Trump, continues to be persecuted, now being indicted by the state of New York. We are back for Season two of the Trump soap opera. OMG. It is certainly terrible watershed in our history, but President Trump appears to be using it to his political advantage, so its significance has been diminished for me.
I don’t want to be part of a game regarding indictments of political opponents. It should not be about selling t-shirts and raising money. It should be about exposing the double standards and the fraud of such actions. This fraud should be apparent to objective observers, not the ones who say “this is a sad day for America” while being gleeful over the criminal proceedings against a political figure they dislike.
There were 34 counts brought against the former president. It appears to be one count actually; they change dates and names for the final 33 counts; they want to make it appear he did many awful things, but it was only one, and something not worth putting us through this spectacle for. Trump did something morally wrong: slept with a woman not his wife (although he still denies even that), and he paid her to stay quiet. None of that is criminal.
The criminal offense appears to be regarding how the hush money was categorized. The New York DA says it should have been a campaign expense, but it was not characterized that way. This is the whole case: a bookkeeping error, you see. It is flimsy and the statute of limitations expired a long time ago. Still, in New York City, a grand jury indicted and likely another jury will convict, because the people there hate Trump. This case should be thrown, but the case is about politics, not about legality. Senator Ted Cruz on his podcast, The Verdict, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/verdict-with-ted-cruz/id1495601614 noted that Hillary Clinton, who is also a New York resident, did the exact same thing at the exact same time, but there are no charges, not even an investigation of her.
Still, I don’t know how much of a meaningful discussion we will have of this. So many will put on their jerseys and root only for their team. Many on the Right say that Trump will be helped politically by this, but I don’t see how this helps him get re-elected. Polls show that a majority of Americans approve of the Trump indictment, including 62% of Independents. https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/03/politics/cnn-poll-trump-indictment/index.html. Getting Trump nominated is what his opponents want. They think he can be beaten in 2024, and they may be right. Convicting a candidate is the event that is going to get Trump more voters in 2024? What happens when a trial begins (again in 2024) or when other charges from three other cases come in? People on the fence will unlikely be swayed by this.
I do believe this is a witch hunt and the former president is unfairly targeted. If there were a level playing field and all politicians held to the same standard, maybe there is a case, but he is held to unbelievably strict standard that very few are. Still, I would rather see him bow out of this race. This case will be drug out the next two years and the discussion will be all about something it shouldn’t be. Trump should step aside in any case. Republicans have a better option, Trump is too old in any case, and we don’t want another two years of political circus.
There is no meaningful debate in so much of media today. Can all the candidates please move on to a real debate about real issues in the Republican primary, if we at all possibly can? Somewhere we need to find real substance and real people to talk about real issues. There is no hope for such debate in media or among Democrats, but perhaps Republicans can finally show us they are to the task.
Seek the Truth 