Power Up: The fight over Liz Cheney and Donald Trump is just beginning washingtonpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from washingtonpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Republicans Are Actively Destroying Democracy, Says Former Pence Adviser
On 5/11/21 at 4:00 AM EDT
In an appearance on
The Reidout on MSBNC on Monday night, Olivia Troye told Joy Reid that Republican efforts to regain power show that Trumpism has a hold of the country right now a prospect she described as horrifying.
Troye was Pence s homeland security adviser and also served on the White House Coronavirus Task Force before quitting the Trump administration in August last year.
Since then, Troye, the director of the Republican Accountability Project, has been outspoken in her criticism of the former president and the Big Lie that he won the 2020 presidential election.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File
Two thoughts on how this is going to play out for Cheney via two anonymous sources who’ve been whispering to media outlets today. One comes from a former Republican lawmaker who spoke to The Hill: “She’s done as a member of leadership. I don’t understand what she’s doing… It’s like political self-immolation. You can’t cancel Trump from the Republican Party; all she’s done is cancel herself.”
The other comes from a Republican strategist who spoke to NBC: “There’s no incentive for her to be a part of the team, no advantage of being in leadership… The leverage comes from being the other center of power in the conference. So by attacking her, they’re in essence helping her.”
Guest Commentary As a wise philosopher once wrote, “If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success.” This thought prompts a reflection on the term “RINO.” Understood as “Republican in name only,” the term has acquired a more popular meaning in the Trump era as a derogatory reference to Republicans who fail to subscribe to the former president’s belief that the Republican Party is defined by its allegiance to Mr. Trump. The growing prominence of Rep. Elise Stefanik in the Republican Party, and the likelihood that she will replace Liz Cheney in the congressional party hierarchy, prompts the question of what actually is a “Republican” in this day and age, and especially what it means for the people of the North Country.