Liz Cheney, who has vowed to do everything she can to stop Donald Trump from winning another term in the White House, recently described the former president’s multiple legal battles as a sign of his “fundamental lack of character,” The Hill reported.
While appearing on the February 18 broadcast of CNN’s “State of the Union,” Cheney was asked by host Jake Tapper about the recent rulings against Trump, including New York Judge Arthur Engoron ordering Trump and his company to pay the state $355 million in the civil fraud case brought by Attorney General Letitia James and the $83.3 million in damages a jury ordered Trump to pay E. Jean Carroll in her defamation suit.
Cheney said in looking at those cases, the “common thread” running through them is Trump’s unwillingness “to abide by the law,” as well as his “lack of commitment to the truth” and “fundamental lack of character.”
Cheney said the troubling thing about the current political environment was how widespread the trend has been for once “good and honorable” politicians to abandon the commitment to “elect people of character and honor” to embrace someone like Trump.
The former Republican rep. noted the “Access Hollywood” tape that emerged in the weeks before the 2016 election and suggested that the allegations leveled by E. Jean Carroll did not come “out of left field.”
Cheney also suggested that Donald Trump planned to emulate Russian President Vladimir Putin by seeking “retribution” against his political enemies if he won back the White House in 2024.
She brought up the February 16 suspicious death of Putin critic Alexei Navalny and accused Trump of emulating a leader who “is not subject to the rule of law.” Cheney added that Americans should take the risk of Donald Trump’s return “very seriously.”
In a statement to The Hill responding to Cheney’s remarks, Trump campaign spokesman Steve Cheung suggested that the former Wyoming congresswoman was vying to replace Nikki Haley as “the leader of the Never Trump movement.”
