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Cheney says Trump would appoint lawyers to ‘blow through many of the guardrails of our Constitution’ if reelected

Former Rep. Liz Cheney speaks at The 92nd Street Y New York on June 26, 2023, in New York City.

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) cautioned that former President Trump would appoint lawyers who will help him “blow through” the Constitution if elected to the White House again. 

“I think that, you know, we know what he will do. He’s already done it. We saw what he did after the 2020 election. Obviously, what he did to try to seize power in 2020 and of course, on January 6,” she said on Fox News’s “Special Report.” 

In an interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier, Cheney said she was fearful of a second Trump presidency because of the actions he took in attempting to seize power after the 2020 election. She said if elected to another term in the White House, Trump would take steps that could 
“unravel the rule of law.”

“And if you look at the steps that he would have to take in terms of simply refusing to enforce court orders or comply with court orders with which he disagrees — putting people in key positions as attorney general, for example,” she said. “Or as head of [Office of Legal Counsel], unethical lawyers who would help him, frankly, blow through many of the guardrails of our Constitution. I think it’s a very real concern that he would take steps very quickly that would unravel the rule of law.”

Cheney said that the lawyers who told Trump what he was trying to do after the 2020 election was illegal will not be around if he is elected to the presidency again. 

“People who told him that what he was doing was illegal — those people won’t be around and … the rulings of our courts are fundamental to who we are as a constitutional republic. If the President doesn’t enforce those rulings, they don’t have weight,” she added.

Cheney also urged Fox viewers to support any candidate in the 2024 Republican presidential primary other than Trump. Cheney, a longtime critic of the former president, has been on a recent media blitz to promote her new memoir and to urge voters to not support Trump in next year’s election. 

Cheney served as the vice chair of the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the Capitol. She later lost her August 2022 primary after becoming a frequent critic of her party and the former president.