Liz Cheney says Hawley, Cruz ‘made themselves unfit for future office’

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) on Sunday said it would be “very difficult” for her to support Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) or Ted Cruz (R-Texas) after they objected to Electoral College votes on Jan. 6, 2021.

Cheney told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl that both Ivy League-educated senators “know better.”

“Both of whom know exactly what the role of Congress is in terms of our constitutional obligations with respect to presidential elections, and yet both of whom took steps that fundamentally threatened the constitutional order and structure in the aftermath of the last election,” she said. “So in my view, they both have made themselves unfit for future office.”

Cheney on Tuesday lost her primary to Harriet Hageman, who was backed by former President Trump and has supported unfounded claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

The Wyoming congresswoman has been an unapologetic critic of Trump, voting to impeach him and serving as the vice chairwoman of the House select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol.

She has repeatedly criticized the former president and his allies who back his election fraud claims.

“It would be very difficult,” Cheney said when asked if she could support Cruz, Hawley and others who have closely tied themselves to Trump. 

“I think that a fundamental question for me in terms of whether or not someone is fit to be president is whether they’ve abided by their constitutional obligations in the past,” she said.

Cruz and Hawley are both seen as considering future White House bids, while Cheney is planning to launch a political group to keep Trump and his allies out of office.

Cheney also took aim at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who has recently campaigned in battleground states for candidates backed by Trump and is speculated to be weighing a 2024 presidential bid himself.

“I think that DeSantis is somebody who is, right now, campaigning for election deniers,” Cheney said on ABC. 

“And I think that is something that I think people have got to have real pause about,” she continued. “Either you fundamentally believe in and will support our constitutional structure, or you don’t.”

Cheney after her loss told NBC’s Savannah Guthrie that she was also thinking about running for president.

“Look, you run for president because you believe you would be the best candidate, because you believe you’d be the best president of the United States,” Cheney said on ABC. “And so, any decision that I make about doing something that significant and that serious would be with the intention of winning and because I think I would be the best candidate.”