Liz Cheney is back with another dire warning about the future of the United States, and guess who her claim centers on.
During an interview with CBS News, the former Wyoming congresswoman told John Dickerson that the nation is "sleepwalking into dictatorship," citing the possibility of Donald Trump being reelected in 2024. She also claimed the former president "told us what he will do."
Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) is warning that the United States is “sleepwalking into dictatorship,” saying that if former President Trump is reelected, it could mean the end of the republic.
“One of the things we see today is sort of a sleepwalking into dictatorship in the United States,” Cheney told CBS News’s John Dickerson...
...“He’s told us what he will do. It’s very easy to see the steps that he will take,” she said of the former president in the new interview...
...“People who say ‘well, if he’s elected, it’s not that dangerous because we have all of these checks and balances’ don’t fully understand the extent to which the Republicans in Congress today have been co-opted,” she added.
There's a lot wrong here so let's break it down, starting with the idea that Trump "told us what he will do" and whether he has, at any point, told us he will be a dictator as Cheney says. I'm not talking about feelings here or hunches. She made a direct claim that demands direct evidence.
To provide more context, here is what the above article provides as "proof" of Cheney's claim.
Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination, has threatened to “root out” his political enemies if he returns to the White House, telegraphing a sweeping overhaul of the federal government and criminal prosecutions for some of his opponents.
In other words, Trump has pledged to do exactly what Joe Biden and Cheney herself have done. Nowhere has Trump said he'll simply make up charges or imprison people without due process as a dictator would. Instead, he's promised to continue the same aggressive tactics, tactics that Democrats have assured us are legal, to go after those who have abused the federal government and its legal provisions for political gain. Cheney doesn't get to have it both ways. It's either off-limits to prosecute your opponents for possibly illegal behavior or it's not.
The rest of that paragraph is laughably hyperbole. By "political enemies," what is meant are bureaucrats at various federal agencies who are no more entitled to their jobs than I am to Jeff Bezos' bank account. Did Biden not carry out a sweeping overhaul of the federal government when he took office? Of course, he did. That's the only way a president can ensure his policy goals are protected and not sabotaged. Not being aggressive in doing that was Trump's biggest mistake during his first term.
Moving to another part of Cheney's comments, this is where things get really stupid. She claims that
“People who say ‘well, if he’s elected, it’s not that dangerous because we have all of these checks and balances’ don’t fully understand the extent to which the Republicans in Congress today have been co-opted," she added.
In other words, Cheney is against democracy when it doesn't suit her. Whether the Congress has been "co-opted" or not, whatever that even means, they were all placed in their positions via the democratic process. To act as if their decisions are somehow not to be respected is to be against democracy. Again, Cheney doesn't get to pick and choose. Does she support the popular election of representatives or not?
With all that said, there remains one major reason Cheney is completely wrong. Namely, the fact that Trump obviously doesn't want to be a dictator.
Anyone who has paid attention to the former president's motivations for more than a millisecond is well aware that just about everything he does comes down to his own ego. I know that's going to get me yelled at in the comments (despite being true), but stick with me because this is going somewhere in his favor.
Trump is a showman. Because of that, his desire for power is driven by his public persona. He is not seeking to become a dictator by executing some impossible government takeover. He's seeking to get back into the White House to serve out his final term as a giant middle finger to those who have attacked him since he stepped onto the political scene.
It's not any more complicated than that. Cheney sees visions of Mussolini, while all Trump wants is to serve his four years and be able to say he bested those who tried to take him down. Besides, people who want to be dictators don't voluntarily leave the White House as Trump did in early 2021. Cheney knows that, but writing hysterical books and going on broadcast news is more lucrative. That's her motivation.