Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) has sharply criticized former presidential candidate Nikki Haley for supporting Trump after she criticized him during the 2024 Republican primaries. Haley responded Monday to the saddest case of TDS in the country, highlighting a key difference between their motives.
Cheney said during a Sunday appearance on ABC’s “This Week” that she could not understand Haley’s “principled support for the former president.”
The former lawmaker argued: “Those of us who are loyal to the Constitution have a responsibility and a duty to recognize [that] This is not about party politics.”
Cheney, who supports Vice President Kamala Harris, also argued: “It’s important for people to realize” that Trump is “not a conservative.”
In an appearance on Fox News, Haley countered Cheney’s criticism, saying the former congresswoman “cannot say my decision is not principled” and that she would “vote based on substance.”
“I respect her decision, but she can’t say my decision is not principled. It is. We can vote on style or substance. I vote on substance. I see the fact that we cannot live the next four years the way we have lived the last four years. This is not a contest. Harris raised taxes, Trump cut taxes. Harris wants to stop energy production. Trump built it up. Harris is weak on national security. Trump was strong on national security. Harris allowed 8 million people to infiltrate the border. Trump was much tougher on the border issue.”
Haley continued: “It’s about my family. It’s about America.”
“If you don’t like him, say you don’t like him, but you can’t say his policies are worse than Kamala Harris’s. That’s just not a fact,” Haley concluded.
In recent years, Cheney’s only commercial has been “Orange Man Bad,” a stance that led to her losing a key Republican leadership position in the House and ultimately being ousted during the primaries. Apparently voters decided they wanted a congressman who would focus on their legislative priorities and not rant about Trump every time they were on camera.
But the exchange highlights a key difference between Republicans who have chosen to work with Democrats over Trump and those who are more focused on the state of the country. During her tenure in Congress, Cheney was voted in line with Trump 93 percent of the time, which shows that her decision is not based on political principles. In fact, she has shown that she is willing to sacrifice those principles to support a candidate who vehemently opposes them.
So much for sticking to your principles, Liz.
Haley, on the other hand, who has stern differences with Trump, believes that supporting Trump and his policies is the best way to move America forward, rather than taking her ball and going home to the Democrats who reject everything she supposedly stands for.
People like Cheney, her father Dick, and Mitt Romney have shown that they are focused on one thing: power. These people lost a lot of influence when Trump came on the scene and exposed them for what they were: party operatives who didn’t care about the needs of their constituents. People like Cheney want a return of the aged guard to dominance over the Republicans. I suspect they are banking on the slim possibility that if Trump loses, they might be able to return the party to its pre-Trump days of inaction.
But I think the writing is on the wall at this point. Even if Harris manages to defeat Trump, his movement isn’t going away anytime soon, and Republican voters certainly won’t support a return to business as usual. For now, the establishment’s time is over. The next person to become the party’s figurehead will be far more like Trump than Cheney.
