Former Representative Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, issued a new warning on Sunday about the prospect of the GOP controlling Congress next year following concerns from both sides of the aisle about certifying the results of this year’s upcoming election.
Election security has been a hot-button issue among Republicans, most notably with former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee, falsely claiming his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden was due to a “rigged” election.
The former president claimed last week that he “won” the 2020 election during a rally in Michigan. While encouraging the crowd in the key battleground state to vote, he said, “We did great in 2016 a lot of people don’t know we did much better in 2020. We won, we won, we did win. It was a rigged election.”
During a White House press briefing, Biden said last week that he is confident that the upcoming election will be “free and fair,” but said he was concerned about the transfer of power being peaceful on account of Trump’s words and actions following his loss in 2020.
Cheney, who represented Wyoming’s at-large congressional district, recently endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president. She has previously revealed that her father, former GOP Vice President Dick Cheney, will also be voting for Harris.
The former congresswoman has often distanced herself from some of the more extreme elements of her party, including election deniers, particularly after her break with Trump and the MAGA faction following the events of the January 6th, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot and her role as vice-chair of the January 6th select committee that investigated the insurrection.
In a Sunday interview with NBC News’ Meet The Press, host Kristen Welker asked Cheney if she has “faith that this election will be free and fair and that there will be peaceful transfer of power.”
Cheney, a Trump critic, said she does not have faith, mentioning House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, and warned that the GOP should not be the majority of the House of Representatives come January 2025.
“I do not have faith that Mike Johnson will fulfill his constitutional obligations and if you look at what he did in 2020. He knew and he knew with specificity that claims of fraud that Donald Trump was making and that he was repeating, he knew those to be false…I think it’s very concerning and I do think that Donald Trump has consistently said in the last few months that this election is going to be rigged and if he loses that’s why. So, I think it’s very important the Republicans not be a majority in the House come January 2025,” she said.
Newsweek has reached out to Johnson and Trump’s campaign via email for comment.
Former Representative Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, is seen in Ripon, Wisconsin, on October 3. Cheney issued a new warning on Sunday about the prospect of the GOP controlling Congress next year following concerns from both sides of the aisle about certifying the results of this year’s upcoming election.
KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP/Getty Images
Cheney’s warning comes after 147 congressional members refused to back Biden’s victory over Trump, including 139 House Republicans and eight GOP senators following months of Trump’s voter fraud claims. The movement was led by Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, of Texas and Missouri, respectively, along with Congressman Mo Brooks of Alabama, according to Reuters.
In July 2022, Newsweek examined a comprehensive report, Lost, Not Stolen: The Conservative Case that Trump Lost and Biden Won the 2020 Presidential Election, which featured a thorough rejection of election fraud claims. The report’s Republican authors included election lawyer Ben Ginsberg, former U.S. Senators John Danforth and Gordon Smith, ex-Solicitor General Ted Olson, former congressional chief of staff David Hoppe and three ex-federal judges.
The study analyzed all 64 failed lawsuits in the election’s aftermath, with the Republicans saying: “Trump and his supporters had their day in court and failed to produce substantive evidence to make their case.”
Cheney’s remarks come after Johnson was asked by Welker on Sunday’s Meet The Press whether he will certify the 2024 election results.
The House speaker responded: “We are going to do our job in Congress, a free and fair legal election will be certified and that is our hope and prayer across the board. Of course, I’m going to follow our Constitution, I’m going to follow the law. It’s my job, it’s my duty, I took an oath to do that.”
Welker pushed back, pointing out that Trump has yet to concede the 2020 results, asking, “When people hear you say if it is free and fair, does that not undermine people’s confidence in the election results?”
Johnson said, “No it shouldn’t because what I’m saying is what the Constitution provides…the point is the process work, we have the peaceful transfer of power, we did in 2020, we will in 2024. Everybody can sigh and take a deep breath. Our system is going to work.”
This comes after a bipartisan group in Congress has taken efforts to vow to certify the 2024 election results and attend the inauguration of the winner, according to a letter signed last month.
New Jersey Democratic Representative Josh Gottheimer said in a release in September that he launched the initiative along with Nebraska Republican Representative Don Bacon to “demonstrate true leadership ahead of this critical election and serve as a voice for calm.”
Bacon added: “In America we respect election results especially once the courts and appeals work through the process…We fight hard to win during campaigns and then respect the results when the votes are counted. We are the greatest country in the world, and we are governed by the rule of law. The citizens are sovereign, and they decide.” The collective effort of Bacon and Gottheimer’s initiative is called the “Unity Commitment.”
The lawmakers also agreed to serve “as a voice for calm and reconciliation and speaking out against those who endorse or engage in violence that harms people, property, or public spaces.”
