Former US Rep. Liz Cheney will deliver a commencement speech at her alma mater, an elite liberal arts university in Colorado, amid questions about her political future and insistence that Donald Trump never be president again month.
At the Colorado College commencement on Sunday, the Wyoming Republican is expected to touch on similar issues she has championed since leaving office in January: addressing her work at the Jan. 6 House Select Committee on investigate the US Capitol insurrection and deal with the threat. she believes that Trump puts before democracy.
Cheney’s speaking schedule and busy schedule have fueled speculation about whether he may enter the 2024 GOP presidential primary. Declared or potential candidates range from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to former South Carolina Gov. , Nikki Haley, have calibrated their comments about Trump, aiming to counter his attacks without alienating the supporters who won him the White House seven years ago.
While some have offered measured criticism, no Trump rival has embraced anti-Trump messaging to the same extent as Cheney. In his three terms, he rose to the No. 3 GOP leadership position in the House, a job he lost after voting to impeach Trump for the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol and then not budging on his criticism the former president.
“I feel very strongly about where the country needs to go, and I feel very strongly about how important it is that Donald Trump never be president again,” Cheney said at a March forum at Boston College .
She said she remains undecided about her political future, including whether she wants to run for president.
Although she would face an uphill battle, Cheney’s fierce anti-Trump stance and her role as vice chair of the Jan. 6 Select Committee elevated her platform enough to make her a formidable candidate capable of convening a national network of donors and Trump. critics to support a run for the White House.
A super PAC organized to support his candidacy has remained active, including buying attack ads on the New Hampshire airwaves against Trump this month.
After leaving office and being replaced by a Trump-backed Republican who defeated her in last year’s primaries, Cheney was appointed a professor at the University of Virginia and wrote “Oath and Honor,” a memoir scheduled to hit shelves in November.
Cheney graduated from Colorado College in 1988 and the Colorado Springs school is also the alma mater of his mother Lynne. Cheney is also a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School.
Colorado College students offered mixed reactions when she was named commencement speaker in March, including some who staged a small protest over her voting record before the uprising.
Cheney’s speaking tour appears to be picking up steam. He is scheduled to appear Thursday at the Mackinac Policy Conference in Michigan.
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Metz reported from Salt Lake City.
