Politics
Liz Cheney has a striking answer to a key Lindsey Graham question
Last week, former Republican Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania said he’d already cast a ballot for Vice President Kamala Harris. A few days earlier, the Democrat also picked up some endorsements from prominent Wisconsin Republicans, including former state Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz. A few days before that, Al Cárdenas, the former chair of the Florida Republican Party, announced his support for Harris.
They have an enormous amount of company. Indeed, as the Democratic ticket focuses heavily on reaching out to independents and disaffected GOP voters, Republicans for Harris has become a surprisingly effective force, backed by former members of Congress, governors, state lawmakers, cabinet secretaries, White House staffers, and even a former Republican vice president who probably never dreamed he’d be backing a Democratic presidential candidate.
The developments have not gone unnoticed. On the contrary, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina appeared on “Meet the Press” over the weekend and asked a rather pointed question. NBC News reported:
GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina on Sunday slammed members of his own party who are supporting Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential bid, asking them, “What the hell are you doing?”
It was probably a rhetorical question, though it’s a relatively easy one to answer.
In fact, former House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney has held some public events with Harris, including one in Wisconsin in which Charlie Sykes — an MSNBC Daily columnist and conservative media host who’s also broken with his party and backed Harris — reminded the former Wyoming congresswoman about Graham’s on-air comments, and asked for her reaction.
“Well, don’t listen to Lindsey Graham,” Cheney responded. “It’s good life advice, actually.”
It was a funny line, and it generated some applause from the audience, but that’s not all Cheney has had to say on the matter. In fact, at the same event, Cheney also said, “If you wouldn’t … hire somebody to babysit your kids, you shouldn’t make that guy president of the United States.” She went on to argue, “In this election, we need to elect the person who is the responsible adult.”
Hours earlier, at a separate Harris event in Pennsylvania, the former House GOP leader encouraged voters to consider the significance of electing a president who’s “totally erratic,” “completely unstable,” and who “idolizes tyrants.”
If Graham genuinely wants to know “what the hell” anti-Trump Republicans are doing, there’s no great mystery here: They’re putting patriotism above party. They’re coming to terms with the fact that their party has nominated an erratic criminal, who’s been credibly accused of mental instability, and who’s running on an authoritarian platform. They believe it’s in the nation’s interest to defeat him and instead go with a qualified, mainstream vice president.
For more along these lines, I’d also refer the South Carolinian to Cheney’s recent remarks delivered at the birthplace of the Republican Party.
Nearly three weeks later, the speech holds up quite well, whether Lindsey Graham wants to listen or not.
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an BLN political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to restore the government-run Voice of America’s operations after it had effectively been shut down a year ago, putting hundreds of employees who have been on administrative leave back to work.
U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth gave the U.S. Agency for Global Media a week to put together a plan for putting Voice of America on the air. It has been operating with a skeleton staff since President Donald Trump issued an executive order to shut it down.
A week ago, Lamberth said Kari Lake, who had been Trump’s choice to lead the agency, did not have the legal authority to do what she had done at Voice of America. In Tuesday’s decision, Lamberth ruled on the actions she had taken to respond to Trump’s order, essentially shelving 1,042 of VOA’s 1,147 employees.
“Defendants have provided nothing approaching a principled basis for their decision,” Lamberth wrote.
There was no immediate comment on the decision by the agency overseeing Voice of America. Lake had denounced Lamberth’s March 7 ruling, saying it would be appealed. Since then, Trump nominated Sarah Rogers, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, to run USAGM. That requires Senate approval, a step that was not taken with Lake.
Patsy Widakuswara, Voice of America’s White House bureau chief and a plaintiff in the lawsuit to restore it, said she is deeply grateful for the decision.
“We are eager to begin repairing the damage Kari Lake has inflicted on our agency and our colleagues, to return to our congressional mandate, and to rebuild the trust of the global audience we have been unable to serve for the past year,” she said.
“We know the road to restoring VOA’s operations and reputation will be long and difficult,” she said. “We hope the American people will continue to support our mission to produce journalism, not propaganda.”
Voice of America has transmitted news coverage to countries around the world since its formation in World War II, often in countries with no tradition of a free press. Before Trump’s executive order, VOA had operated in 49 different languages, broadcasting to 362 million people.
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to restore the government-run Voice of America’s operations after it had effectively been shut down a year ago, putting hundreds of employees who have been on administrative leave back to work.
U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth gave the U.S. Agency for Global Media a week to put together a plan for putting Voice of America on the air. It has been operating with a skeleton staff since President Donald Trump issued an executive order to shut it down.
A week ago, Lamberth said Kari Lake, who had been Trump’s choice to lead the agency, did not have the legal authority to do what she had done at Voice of America. In Tuesday’s decision, Lamberth ruled on the actions she had taken to respond to Trump’s order, essentially shelving 1,042 of VOA’s 1,147 employees.
“Defendants have provided nothing approaching a principled basis for their decision,” Lamberth wrote.
There was no immediate comment on the decision by the agency overseeing Voice of America. Lake had denounced Lamberth’s March 7 ruling, saying it would be appealed. Since then, Trump nominated Sarah Rogers, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, to run USAGM. That requires Senate approval, a step that was not taken with Lake.
Patsy Widakuswara, Voice of America’s White House bureau chief and a plaintiff in the lawsuit to restore it, said she is deeply grateful for the decision.
“We are eager to begin repairing the damage Kari Lake has inflicted on our agency and our colleagues, to return to our congressional mandate, and to rebuild the trust of the global audience we have been unable to serve for the past year,” she said.
“We know the road to restoring VOA’s operations and reputation will be long and difficult,” she said. “We hope the American people will continue to support our mission to produce journalism, not propaganda.”
Voice of America has transmitted news coverage to countries around the world since its formation in World War II, often in countries with no tradition of a free press. Before Trump’s executive order, VOA had operated in 49 different languages, broadcasting to 362 million people.
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