Rep. Liz Cheney, one of Donald Trump’s most vocal Republican critics, is standing by her 2024 plans, but said in an interview Tuesday that she has no intention of taking any steps to help the former president return in office .
“I’m not going to do anything that helps Donald Trump,” Cheney told NBC News’ Lester Holt at the Aspen Ideas Festival. “I’ll make a decision about what I do and what’s coming later this year.”
Cheney, who represented Wyoming in Congress for six years before losing last year’s Republican primary to a Trump-backed candidate, was also asked whether she would run as a Republican or a third-party candidate if she launched a White House offer
“The way I’m thinking about where we are and what needs to be done is a lot less about, you know, what should I do in terms of whether I’m going to run or not … and a lot more about leaving me? Donald Trump , whatever,” he said.
After losing the primary in August, Cheney said he will decide his plans for 2024 “in the coming months.”
Cheney became a frequent target of Trump and his allies on Capitol Hill after she was one of the few Republicans to vote to impeach Trump. That cost him the No. 3 spot in the House GOP leadership. He drew even more criticism from the GOP when he helped lead the congressional committee that investigated the January 6, 2021 riots, with a heavy focus on Trump’s actions.
Third-party candidates have not generally performed well in recent presidential elections, but they can sometimes affect the margins of battleground states.
In the 2016 election, 6% of all voters cast ballots for third-party and write-in candidates, and the share dropped to 2% in 2020. Some Democrats have argued that the difference made it easier for Trump to win in 2016.
Cornel West, political activist and teacher, announced his candidacy for the Popular Party presidential nomination this month. In his announcement, West criticized both Democrats and Republicans, calling Trump a “neo-fascist and President Joe Biden a milquetoast liberal.”
In statements on Monday at Street 92 Y in New York, Cheney dodged a question from moderator David Rubenstein about whether he would consider running as an independent if he knew doing so would hurt rather than help Trump.
“What we have done in our politics is create a situation where we are electing idiots. And so I don’t look at it through the lens of, you know, is this what I should do or what I shouldn’t do. I look at it through the lens of how we elect serious people, and I think electing serious people can’t be partisan,” he said.
In Tuesday’s interview, Cheney said she was committed to helping get other “good” candidates on the ballot.
“We really need to make sure that everyone is active and engaged and involved, and I will certainly do my best to support serious candidates,” Cheney said.
