RIPON, Wisc. — Liz Cheney, one in every of Donald Trump’s fiercest Republican antagonists, rallied with Kamala Harris on Thursday on the web site in Wisconsin the place the fashionable Republican Social gathering was born, because the Democratic vice chairman aimed to win over average voters and rattle the previous president.
The daughter of former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, former Rep. Liz Cheney was the highest GOP lawmaker on the Home committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, rebel, incomes Trump’s disdain and successfully exiling herself from her personal celebration.
“Violence does not and must never determine who rules us. Voters do,” Cheney told the crowd as she recounted Trump refusing to act as he watched the violent attack on television. Someone in the crowd yelled “coward!” Others booed.
“He praised the rioters. He did not condemn them. That’s who Donald Trump is,” Cheney stated.
She misplaced her Wyoming seat to a Trump-endorsed candidate two years in the past and she endorsed Harris, the Democratic nominee, final month. The 2 ladies appeared collectively in Ripon, dwelling to a white schoolhouse the place a collection of conferences held in 1854 to oppose slavery’s growth led to the beginning of the Republican Social gathering.
“I know that she loves our country, and I know she will be a president for all Americans” Cheney stated of Harris. Noting that she herself stays conservative, Cheney stated she was “honored to join her in this urgent cause.”
As an alternative of her regular “Harris-Walz” marketing campaign indicators, the stage was embellished with giant indicators that stated “Country Over Party,” together with loads of pink, white and blue bunting.
Harris was opening a two-day journey to Wisconsin and Michigan, and Trump was in Michigan on Thursday as the 2 candidates grapple for wins within the “blue wall” battleground states, which additionally embrace Pennsylvania.
In the meantime, President Joe Biden stated Thursday that he wasn’t involved a few Trump-Harris race coming all the way down to the wire as a result of “it at all times will get this shut.”
“She’s gonna do fine,” Biden stated of Harris to reporters on the South Garden of the White Home on his solution to go to storm-ravaged Georgia and Florida. He added that Harris’ operating mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, did properly in his debate with Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance throughout Tuesday’s debate in New York.
“The other guy lost the debate,” Biden stated. “He misrepresented everything.”
Harris’ go to to Wisconsin comes at some point after a federal decide unsealed a 165-page court docket submitting outlining prosecutors’ case towards Trump for his try to overturn his 2020 election defeat. Trump has pleaded not responsible to fees of conspiracy and obstruction.
Trump didn’t point out the doc filed by particular counsel Jack Smith or Cheney’s look with Harris throughout an 82-minute speech at a rally in Saginaw County, Michigan. In 2020, Democrat Biden received the bellwether county by a slim 303 votes, contributing to his victory within the state.
As Trump spoke, his marketing campaign introduced he’ll seem in Georgia on Friday with Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. The 2 males have made peace after Trump in August unleashed a blistering assault on Kemp, whom he has faulted for not giving in to his efforts to overturn his loss in 2020.
As for Harris, it’s unusual, to say the least, for a candidate to provide a nod to the origins of the opposing celebration within the closing weeks of a presidential marketing campaign. Not solely that, the Cheney title was as soon as anathema to Democrats who deplored Dick Cheney, Liz’s father, for his position as vice chairman underneath George W. Bush.
Through the 2020 marketing campaign, Liz Cheney criticized Harris as “a radical liberal” who “wants to recreate America in the image of what’s happening on the streets of Portland & Seattle,” a reference to unrest that befell in these cities after the homicide of George Floyd.
However Jan. 6 was a turning level for Liz Cheney and her household. Each Cheneys are backing Harris, a part of a cadre of present and former Republican officers who’ve damaged with the overwhelming majority of their celebration, which stays in Trump’s nook. Harris needs to painting her candidacy as a patriotic alternative for impartial and conservative voters who have been disturbed by Trump’s unwillingness to cede energy. Trump continues to disclaim his defeat with false claims of voter fraud.
Harris on Thursday additionally was endorsed by Cassidy Hutchinson, who was a younger White Home aide throughout Trump’s presidency and described throughout a listening to of Cheney’s Jan. 6 congressional committee how she grew disgusted by Trump’s refusal to cease the rioters that day. Harris’ marketing campaign additionally started airing advertisements concentrating on Republicans, independents and former Trump voters in battleground states.
Cheney’s presence prompted some dissonance for Harris supporters within the viewers, particularly people who keep in mind her father’s position as a Republican headliner.
Victor Romero, 46, stated it was “a little weird” to be at an occasion together with her.
“I still don’t like Liz Cheney’s politics. But I’m glad that she understands the Republican Party that currently exists is just for Trump.”
However for youthful voters, they know Cheney primarily for standing as much as Trump.
“She caught to her morals,” stated Kynaeda Grey, 22.
Harris on Friday will maintain a marketing campaign rally in Flint, Michigan, persevering with her tour of states which were crucial to Democratic victories. Trump received Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan in 2016, and Biden received them in 2020.
Trump has ramped up his concentrate on Michigan, holding two rallies there lower than every week in the past earlier than Thursday’s look in Saginaw.
