Ex-Congresswoman Liz Cheney Mulls Over Presidential Run to Counter Trump – Reports
© AP Photo / Andrew Harnik
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WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Former congresswoman Liz Cheney is contemplating running for US president in the 2024 election as a third-party candidate to not let Donald Trump return to the White House, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
Cheney vows to do “whatever it takes” to prevent Trump from winning the election and is warning that he can transform the US democracy into a dictatorship and try to stay longer than his term, the report said.
“Several years ago, I would not have contemplated a third-party run,” the report cited Cheney as saying in a Monday interview. “I happen to think democracy is at risk at home, obviously, as a result of Donald Trump’s continued grip on the Republican Party, and I think democracy is at risk internationally as well.”
If Cheney does decide to participate in the presidential campaign, it will be far from easy, since to accomplish this, she will need to either run for one of the parties that have ballot access or petition for her place on state ballots, the report said. Moreover, she must have at least 15% support in national polls to participate in the debates next fall.
The former congresswoman believes that Trump “enablers” controlling the House, including US House Speaker Mike Johnson, pose a serious threat and would likely make an attempt to interfere with the election results in January 2025 in a repeat of the January 6 events, the report added.
Cheney said that is considering voting for Biden or campaigning for him should she become the 2024 Democratic nominee and will make up her mind about the run in the next few months.
On January 6, 2021, after Trump's election defeat, a mob of his supporters breached the US Capitol in an attempt to halt Congress's Electoral College vote count.
4 December 2023, 22:14 GMT
Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, was one of only 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after the capitol attack and later went on to become vice chair of the congressional January 6 Committee that investigated the riot.
According to a recent poll by Quinnipiac University, Trump maintains a larger lead in the Republican Party primary race, where he holds 64% support, trailed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in second place with 16% support.
