Liz Cheney leads full-frontal assault against Trump's MAGA Republicans

In just a matter of weeks, the race for the White House will reach its climactic conclusion as voters all across the nation head to the polls. Vice-President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump are locked in a heated battle in what is expected to be the closest finish in U.S. presidential history.

Yet, while Trump is focused on winning an election and staying one step ahead of prosecutors, a once-vanquished foe is plotting a more systemic and exacting demise of the twice-impeached ex-president by wresting control of the Republican Party from the convicted felon.

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Former congresswoman and one-time GOP leader, Liz Cheney, recently stood on hallowed ground at the birthplace of the Grand Ole Party in the battleground state of Wisconsin and locked arms with the democratic presidential challenger. In a stunning about-face, the dyed-in-wool conservative is staging a daring frontal assault against MAGA in a brazen attempt to end Trump’s political ambitions once-and-for-all.

The daughter of former Vice-President Dick Cheney has been persona non grata with the re-defined MAGA Republican Party since her vote to impeach Trump for the fateful events that unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021. She subsequently served as co-chair of the J6 congressional task force which led to her ouster from leadership and ultimately saw her lose her congressional seat in a lopsided defeat to a Trump-endorsed candidate.

Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., speaks as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds its final meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 19, 2022 (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

However, since Trump’s retribution for her insolence and disloyalty, Cheney, defeated but unbowed, is fighting back, and fighting back hard. Aligning with MAGA’s chief rival sends a clarion call to all disaffected Republicans that the once-dormant resistance is now ready to attack.

Using the moment of a major presidential campaign cycle to recruit and build, Cheney has been fortifying her right flank, all the while extending an olive branch to the left. By bolstering her credibility across the aisle and garnering political support, she builds momentum to shape control of the White House, should Harris win, which could give her the power and standing she needs to defeat a very powerful and steadfast foe.

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In fact, it is no coincidence that Cheney’s appearance alongside Harris came the same day a cadre of Republicans across Wisconsin also went public with their endorsement of the vice-president. In an open letter, the conservative Wisconsinites — ranging from a former county GOP chair to a former state senator — called on fellow Republicans to reject Trump.

“We have plenty of policy disagreements with Vice President Harris. But what we do agree upon is more important,” the letter reads. “We agree that we cannot afford another four years of the broken promises, election denialism, and chaos of Donald Trump’s leadership.”

One of the Republicans who signed the letter is a former Iowa County Sheriff, Steve Michek, who also spoke at the Harris-Cheney rally. He said he voted for Trump in 2016, but was “appalled” when he witnessed Trump supporters assaulting U.S. Capitol police on Jan. 6.

“It is now clear to me that Donald Trump is a danger to our country. That is why I am voting for Vice President Kamala Harris,” Michek said. “As we gather in the very town where the Republican Party was founded, I am asking my fellow Republicans to join me as we turn the page on Trump’s campaign of division and chaos.”

Cheney, the second-generation scion of a political dynasty dating back decades, stated: “Our republic faces a threat unlike any we have faced before: A former president who attempted to stay in power by unraveling the foundations of our Republic by refusing to accept the lawful results — confirmed by dozens of courts — of the 2020 election,” Cheney said. “In this election, putting patriotism ahead of partisanship is not an aspiration, it is our duty.”

Already more than 200 Republicans have publicly endorsed Kamala Harris, denouncing Trump as dangerous and a threat to American democracy. However, as Cheney builds a cadre of support to take down Trump, MAGA loyalists are seething at the treachery afoot. Wisconsin Republican Party chair Brian Schimming said that Republicans supporting Harris were outliers in the party. He went on to call Cheney a “prop for Kamala Harris.”

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“The fact that the Cheneys have decided to endorse a person who has a horrible record with Joe Biden over the last four years, which the voters generally agree with, frankly, says something about them, not about Republican voters,” he said.

U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, right, and former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., greet attendees during a campaign event at Ripon College in Ripon, Wis. on Oct. 3, 2024 (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Still, it is not lost on political insiders and historians that Harris is the first major party presidential candidate to visit Ripon, Wisc. since Republican Wendell Wilkie in 1940, who was defeated by Democratic incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Clearly, this was more than just an expertly choreographed political stunt. The once-quelled rebellion has re-grouped and allied with a common foe of MAGA to finally subdue Trump and his new brand of Republicanism for good.

An alliance of necessity, Cheney’s support for Harris is borne out of urgency. For in politics, “strange bedfellows” has always been the elixir of convenience when power is at stake. Yet, this time, it is nation, not just party, that is on the brink. And for that, Cheney is willing to shelve ideology and align with her opponent in a fight against something she believes is far more insidious; someone she intuits as far more destructive. She has chosen this election to stand her ground; this campaign cycle to choose a side; this historic moment to lean in. A bulwark not against the other side but the enemy she wholeheartedly believes is a threat to the entire system.

Eric Ham is a bestselling author and former congressional staffer in the U.S. Congress. He served as a contributor to TheHill.com and The Washington Diplomat. He resides in Washington, DC.