Liz Cheney's dire warning about future elections
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-largeUpdated: Thu, 13 Oct 2022 22:30:16 GMTSource: CNNDuring her opening statement in what is widely expected to be the final meeting of the January 6 committ
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-largeUpdated: Thu, 13 Oct 2022 22:30:16 GMT
Source: CNN
During her opening statement in what is widely expected to be the final meeting of the January 6 committee before the midterm elections, vice chair Liz Cheney issued a clarion call about the peril facing the country in future elections.
"Our institutions only hold when men and women of good faith make them hold," Cheney said. "We have no guarantee that these men and women will be in place next time."
We know that statement to be unquestionably true.
Were it not for former Vice President Mike Pence's refusal to cave to pressure from then-President Donald Trump (and his allies) to disallow the electoral vote count on January 6, 2021, we would be in a very different place today.
Were it not for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger refusing to cave to the pressure from Trump (and his allies) to change the vote count in the state, we would be in a very different place today.
And we also know that there are active attempts to put in place people -- in key electoral positions -- who not only openly disputed the 2020 election but who have pledged to institute Trump as president in 2024.
By CNN's count, at least 11 Republican candidates for secretary of state in 2020 have questioned the results of the 2020 election.
And that list includes Jim Marchant, who is running to be Nevada's top election official. Marchant, at a recent Trump rally, said this of the coming elections: "When I'm secretary of state of Nevada, we are going to fix it, and when my coalition of secretary of state candidates around the country get elected we're going to fix the whole country, and President Trump is going to be president again in 2024."
What Cheney is warning about then is not some doomsday scenario along the lines of a meteor hitting Earth. It is a scenario that is playing out, as we speak, in states around the country -- and the Republican politicians running for these offices aren't even being coy about it.
Again, Cheney's words from today are worth sitting with for a minute.
"With every effort to excuse or justify the conduct of the former President, we chip away at the foundation of our Republic," she said. "Indefensible conduct is defended, inexcusable conduct is excused. Without accountability, it all becomes normal, and it will recur."
The Point: What the January 6 committee is really about is not, in fact, the past. Or even the present. It is about the future -- and whether what happened in 2020 was a dry run for what is to come in 2024.
