Cheney says GOP leaders are treating Trump like a ‘king’ by defending him in Mar-a-Lago probe
Rep. Liz Cheney launched a blistering attack on Donald Trump and his allies, accusing GOP leaders of treating the former president like a “king.”
WASHINGTON — Rep. Liz Cheney launched a blistering attack on Donald Trump and his allies Monday, accusing Republican leaders of treating the former president like a “king” by defending him at every turn in a federal investigation into classified documents stored at his Florida estate.
“Those who are protecting Donald Trump — elected leaders of my party — are now willing to condemn FBI agents, Department of Justice officials, and pretend that taking top-secret SCI documents and keeping them in a desk drawer in an office in Mar-a-Lago, or in an unsecured location anywhere, was somehow not a problem. They are attempting to excuse this behavior,” Cheney, R-Wyo., said in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. (SCI is short for “sensitive compartmented information.”)
"Bit by bit, excuse by excuse, we’re putting Donald Trump above the law. We are rendering indefensible conduct normal, legal and appropriate — as though he were a king,” Cheney added, citing what she said was the willingness of some elected GOP officials to defend allegations of actions that touch on obstruction of justice.
Special master appointed in Trump Mar-a-Lago investigationSept. 16, 202200:53Cheney, a vocal Trump critic and the vice chairwoman of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, has been shunned in some conservative circles. But on this day, she was the keynote speaker at the AEI’s annual Constitution Day lecture, where she got a standing ovation and laughter when she told a story about how a House GOP colleague had mocked Trump as “orange Jesus.” Cheney did not reveal the colleague's name.
Both of Cheney’s parents — former Vice President Dick Cheney and Lynn Cheney — attended Monday's speech, as did Bush-era conservatives like Peter Wehner and Paul Wolfowitz, as well as Jeffrey Rosen, the former acting attorney general who refused Trump’s order to help him overturn the results of the 2020 election.
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