![]() ![]() Her first joint statement with Thompson included a broadside at McCarthy for threatening companies that might cooperate with the committee. 6 insurrection on Trump and his allies in Congress who continue to empower him. “It is just what she does.”īut Cheney’s connection to committee Democrats is strengthened by her willingness to place the blame for the Jan. I was a close ally of her and she turned,” said one House Republican, speaking candidly on condition of anonymity. “ expect her to turn on Democrats when she needs to. Some former GOP allies rankled by Cheney’s unsparing criticism of Trump now claim privately that she could bail on Democrats if it serves her politically. Politics also could easily get in the way as Cheney fights for her political life against a Trump-backed challenger. On one front, time will test the duo: Thompson said he hopes the committee can complete its work by “early spring” of next year, but that’s a tall order when juxtaposed with the breadth of the investigation. Their inquiry is escalating just as Trump revs up his political machine for a potential 2024 bid and seeks to punish Republicans like Cheney who openly opposed his baseless claims of fraud. “Obviously, our politics are diametrically opposed, but I have always considered her a real constitutional patriot,” Raskin said.Īnd the Thompson-Cheney bond, simultaneously genuine and strategic, is bound to be challenge as the panel digs into the assault on the Capitol and the forces that led up to it, including Trump’s months-long campaign to overturn his election loss. Some lawmakers in both parties still suspect that the good feelings won’t last, particularly when it comes time to craft a final report or draw politically volatile conclusions.īut Thompson, Raskin and others say with each day, as they’ve worked alongside her, their trust in Cheney has deepened. Some House Democrats privately said they didn’t know what to expect when Pelosi first agreed to put Cheney on the panel after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy vowed to boycott the probe following the speaker’s veto of two of his picks. As House GOP conference chair prior to her ouster, Cheney also acquired valuable knowledge about Trump’s relationship with her colleagues and interactions with members of leadership. Part of that comes from Cheney’s substantive value to the committee, having held senior executive-branch posts and gotten unique insight into the workings of the West Wing from her father’s role as George W. “But she also does a lot of the diplomacy that is important if you want to be successful.” “What’s surprised me a little is, she not only is strong on these issues, she’s passionate, she cares,” Aguilar said of Cheney. Adam Kinzinger, raise ideas “that we might not think through completely” without them in the room. 6 panel member, said Cheney and her fellow anti-Trump committee Republican, Illinois Rep. “If he didn’t have, he never would’ve named her vice chair. “He has a tremendous amount of admiration and respect for Cheney,” House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn said of Thompson. That marked contrast to the grandstanding and stasis of the typical high-profile congressional investigation - what Cheney called “seamless” movement - is in part due to the bond at the top of the select panel. ![]() The committee is also notably interactive given pandemic-era constraints, holding regular Zoom calls for members and staff that have allowed a free exchange of ideas. ![]() ![]() Thompson said one of the reasons they speak so frequently is to present a united front to the broader committee when it comes to critical investigative calls. Since then, they’ve navigated decisions remotely while Cheney hopscotched around the west for family commitments. Their comity was evident when Thompson tapped Cheney as the panel’s vice chair earlier this month, a position he created purely to elevate her and underscore what Democrats have emphasized as the committee’s bipartisan cooperation. “You do what is important, and you do what’s right and you don’t spend a lot of time thinking about partisanship,” she said. Alluding to Trump acolytes and other conservatives’ jabs at Cheney as insufficiently loyal to her party, Thompson said anyone who’s “tried to paint her other than a great patriot, a great American, a good family person, then they don’t know Liz Cheney.”Ĭheney said that she’s “enjoyed getting to know Bennie” and compared them to heads-down colleagues in any American office, as opposed to the brutal combatants who tend to populate the Capitol. 6 panel piled on the plaudits for each other. In separate interviews with POLITICO about their relationship, the chair and vice chair of the Jan. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |