Unlike other politicians, whose self-destruction on live TV is usually associated with wrongdoings, former Congresswoman Liz Cheney derailed her political career in front of the cameras out of principle. What resembled a martyr operation started from her own personal disgust over the actions of President (and fellow Republican) Donald Trump on January 6, 2021, when rioters stormed the Capitol building to overturn what his supporters declared was a fake election lost by their defiant leader. Cheney’s stance on Trump’s actions didn’t go over well with her Congressional Republican colleagues, who, in May 2021, removed her from the conference chair, the party’s third-highest post in the House of Representatives. Before that fateful vote, she said during a speech given in the House, “I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president’s crusade to undermine our democracy,” per CBS News.
Read Related Also: Speaker Steve Scalise? Who knows where this goes?
But her comments the following month are what led to the end of her political career. As the vice chair of the House Select Committee investigating the riot, Cheney tore a strip off her political colleagues during her opening remarks covered by all of America’s TV networks. “Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain,” she said, per NPR. In August of 2022, Cheney lost her Wyoming seat in a state primary.
