Liz Cheney Calls on Americans to Be ‘Guardrails of Democracy’ After Donald Trump Wins Election

Mar. 15, 2025

Liz Cheney, left, and Donald Trump, right.Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty; Brandon Bell/Getty

Liz Cheneyis calling on Americans to help be “the guardrails of democracy” afterDonald TrumpdefeatedKamala Harrisin the 2024 presidential election.

Just hours after Trump’s victory, the 58-year-old former congresswoman posted on X (formerly Twitter) that Americans“now have a special responsibility”to defend the Constitution and “preserve the rule of law” after Trumpreached the 270 electoral votesneeded to claim victory in the election.

The daughter of former Vice PresidentDick Cheneythen urged U.S. citizens to do “everything” possible in the next four years to “ensure that our institutions hold” while Trump’s new administration holds office.

“Our nation’s democratic system functioned last night and we have a new President-elect. All Americans are bound, whether we like the outcome or not, to accept the results of our elections,” Cheney posted on Wednesday, Nov. 6.

Former congresswoman Liz Cheney said Americans “have a special responsibility” to defend the Constitution and “preserve the rule of law” after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election.Samuel Corum/Getty

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Cheney has long been an outspoken critic of Trump, breaking from the Republican Party in 2020 to urge the former president to respect the electoral process before leading the House investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

She was also one of few Republicans whocalled for Trump to be prosecutedfor his involvement in the riot and posed the question, “Are we a country where no one is above the law?”

Cheney evenserved on a congressional committeethat investigated the attack, which she said may have been the “most important thing I ever do.” She told theNew York Times, “I don’t look at it through a political lens. I look at it through the angle of: People need to understand how dangerous he is and how unfit for office he is.”

Liz Cheney at her concession speech following Wyomings Republican primary for the 2022 congressional election.Jae C. Hong/AP Photo

Cheney faced much backlash from her party for her critiques of Trump. In 2021, Republicans in Wyoming voted tono longer recognize Cheney as a member of their partyin a rebuke of her stance on Trump.

In 2022, Cheneylost her seat in Congressafter losing to Trump-backed attorney Harriet Hageman in the Republican primary. At the time, she said a clear path to her reelection “would’ve required that I go along with President Trump’s lie about the 2020 election,” adding, “That was a path I could not and would not take.”

Trump has also been openly critical of Cheney. Speaking in Arizona less than a week before the 2024 presidential election, Trump called the former congresswoman“a very dumb individual”before suggesting she face a firing squad.

In response, Cheney posted on X, “This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.”

source: people.com