Kamala Harris and Liz Cheney campaigning in Ripon, Wisconsin, Oct. 3, 2024. (Harris-Walz campaign stream screengrab)
Originally published by The 19th
Former Rep. Liz Cheney urged her fellow Republicans to support Vice President Kamala Harris during a three-state campaign swing Monday, arguing to voters that former President Donald Trump is dangerous and unfit to be president.
“We have the opportunity to vote for and support somebody you can count on,” Cheney said in Pennsylvania. “We’re not always going to agree, but I know Vice President Harris will always do what she believes is right for this country. She has a sincere heart, and that’s why I’m honored to be here and supporting her in this race.”
Monday’s events are part of a broader effort to appeal to voters who aren’t Democrats. In courting Republicans, Harris has pointed to the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol as unpatriotic resistance to the peaceful transfer of power and worked to draw a contrast with Trump, saying she prioritizes the well-being of all Americans over partisanship. Trump, meanwhile, has falsely said no one was armed on January 6 and that he would pardon those convicted in the attack.
Cheney, a former Trump supporter turned critic, was the top Republican on the congressional committee investigating the January 6 insurrection and has now endorsed Harris. She and Harris campaigned together in the three “Blue Wall” states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin on Monday as part of a “Country Over Party” tour.
During the Pennsylvania event, Cheney — who has previously shared that she has never voted for a Democrat — connected her support for Harris to her conservative values.
“I know that the most conservative of all conservative principles is being faithful to the Constitution,” Cheney said. “You have to choose in this race between someone who has been faithful to the Constitution, who will be faithful, and Donald Trump, who, it’s not just us predicting how he will act — we watched what he did after the last election. We watched what he did on January 6.”
Trump, meanwhile, has made no such overtures to Democrats or independents in the final weeks of the campaign.
“It’s hard to believe you have undecided voters. I do hear about them, but you possibly do,” Trump told reporters Monday in North Carolina before diverging into a riff on election betting markets.
Throughout his campaign, Trump has suggested he would again refuse to accept another election loss and has used increasingly cataclysmic rhetoric to refer to his political foes. In recent remarks, he’s recast the attack on the Capitol as a “day of love” and a “beautiful thing” and downplayed the violence that occurred on that day, including likening people convicted for their part in the attack to Japanese Americans held in internment camps in World War II. He’s also referred to his Democratic opponents, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as “the enemy within” and suggested the military and national guard could “very easily handle” them.
Speaking to reporters at a campaign event while working the fry cooker at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s location, Trump said he would only accept the results of the 2024 contest “if it’s a fair election,” an indication that he’s likely to reject a loss as fraudulent, as he did after 2020.
Some of Trump’s recent events have been derailed by technical difficulties and medical episodes, while others have gone rambly and off-script. At a Saturday rally in Pennsylvania in which Trump used a profane expletive to deride Harris, he went on an extended tangent about the late golfer Arnold Palmer’s body and genitalia.
Trump has said that a second term would be different than his first because he would seek to only appoint loyalists who agree with him. Harris, meanwhile, has pledged to name a Republican to her Cabinet if elected, which she repeated on Monday in Pennsylvania. She frequently touts her support from Republicans and national security leaders, including Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney. Last week, she held an event in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, featuring Republican leaders and former Rep. Adam Kinzinger. Harris and Cheney first appeared together in Ripon, Wisconsin, the birthplace of the Republican Party.
“I actively invite good ideas from wherever they come,” Harris said in Pennsylvania. “We need a healthy two-party system. We need to be able to have these good, intense debates about issues that are grounded in fact. Let’s start there.” In response to laughter and applause from the audience, Harris continued, “Can you believe that’s an applause line?”
Harris recently accused Trump of “gaslighting” the American people on the facts of January 6. During her tour this week, she warned that Trump’s volatility will continue to affect how other countries see the United States.
“They are watching. So, this is about direct impact on the American people, and it most certainly will impact people around the world,” she said.
Both Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, have incorrectly stated that there was a peaceful transfer of power in January 2021. Trump has talked around questions about whether he will commit to encouraging a peaceful exchange following the 2024 election. The sense of urgency on this issue from Democratic leaders including Harris has heightened following Trump’s comments suggesting the use of the U.S. military against his critics.
“We cannot despair,” Harris said in Michigan. “The nature of democracy is such that there is duality: On the one hand, there’s an incredible strength when our democracy is intact. And it is very fragile. It is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it. That’s the moment we’re in.”
Monday’s Pennsylvania event was moderated by Republican strategist Sarah Longwell, an outgoing member of The 19th’s Board of Directors.