Cheney: Vance would help Trump ‘illegally seize power’

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said on Tuesday that Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) would help former President Trump “illegally seize power” if they were elected on the GOP ticket in November.

Cheney, pointing to previous statements from Vance, drew a stark contrast between the freshman Ohio senator and Trump’s first-term vice president, Mike Pence — whose refusal to abide Trump’s request to reject certified electoral votes from certain states that voted for President Biden turned him into a pariah in many GOP circles.

“JD Vance has pledged he would do what Mike Pence wouldn’t – overturn an election and illegally seize power,” Cheney said on the social platform X. “He says the president can ignore the rulings of our courts. He would capitulate to Russia and sacrifice the freedom of our allies in Ukraine.”

“The Trump GOP is no longer the party of Lincoln, Reagan or the Constitution,” she added.

Cheney’s warning on Tuesday highlighted an interview Vance gave in early February, in which he said he would have chosen not to certify the 2020 election results without pro-Trump electors.

Vance said at the time that he would have allowed states to send multiple slates of electors to Washington after the 2020 election — a key step in Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results.

At that point, Vance said, “Congress should have fought over it from there,” adding that there “were problems” in the 2020 election.

Cheney, on Tuesday, reposted her condemnation of that February interview.

“Yesterday, J.D. Vance claimed that Trump could defy rulings of the Supreme Court as President,” Cheney said at the time. “Vance also admitted he would have done what VP Pence refused to do on January 6th — help Trump illegally seize power.” 

“That’s tyranny,” she continued. “Neither Trump nor Vance is fit to serve.”

Trump and Vance were nominated on Monday as the GOP’s official presidential and vice-presidential candidates, respectively, for the 2024 general election cycle.