Dick Cheney couldn’t get over Jan. 6.
Other Republicans abandoned Donald Trump in the immediate aftermath of the Capitol riot in early 2021. But they came back to him as he showed his political hold on Republican voters endured and as the Biden presidency curdled. The former vice president, who died on Monday, continued to insist that Trump’s conduct had disqualified him for high office.
A few weeks after the riot, the same conviction moved his daughter, then-congresswoman Liz Cheney, to vote to impeach Trump. In 2024, it moved both Cheneys to endorse Kamala Harris over Trump: the first time either had supported a Democrat for president.
Some Republicans dismissed their endorsement as a function of their foreign-policy views, since both were well-known hawks. (The word “warmonger” often featured in these critiques.) But the Cheneys’ policy disagreements with Trump did not keep them from supporting him in two elections. They broke with him only after Jan. 6.
When they criticized him, though, it wasn’t only for the violence of that day but for the larger campaign that led to it: Trump’s months long effort to stay in power after losing the 2020 election. That campaign was a disgrace and an attack on the Constitution, and would have been even if Jan. 6 had unfolded peacefully and without disruption.
Trump said repeatedly that he had won (in a “landslide”). He assembled a team of aides who spun nutty theories about voting machines changing the tallies. They alleged widespread voter fraud had swung the race against him but never produced evidence for that assertion. They filed frivolous lawsuits to throw out the results of lawfully cast votes. He hounded state officials to ignore the law and the facts to indulge him. And, of course, he insisted, with no serious legal basis, that the vice president had the power to halt the certification of the election.
You don’t have to believe that Trump committed statutory crimes during these months to see that he attempted to subvert the Constitution. Trump would later suggest that could be brought back to office in the middle of President Joe Biden’s term, and call for the “termination” of any provisions of the Constitution that stood in the way.
All of this led Dick Cheney to conclude that Trump “can never be trusted with power again.” Both Cheneys took for granted that Harris could be trusted with power. Whether they were right about Harris is now a moot point.
What matters now is that they were right about Trump. The president keeps proving it. He has, for example, assigned himself the power to raise tariffs on imports from all over the world, even though the Constitution gives Congress authority over tariffs. He relies on a statute that gives him emergency powers, even though that statute doesn’t mention tariffs and had never previously been used to impose them. To judge from Trump’s recent statements, the latest supposed national emergency is that a Canadian province ran an advertisement implicitly criticizing him.
Cheney’s side of the argument over Trump lost in 2024. Enough voters didn’t share his concerns about Trump, or considered Harris worse, to put Trump back into office lawfully. Trump’s victory gave him all the legitimate powers of the presidency — along, unfortunately, with the practical ability to push the limits.
The above is from today's Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/11/04/dick-cheney-trump-capitol-riot-january-sixth/
Other Republicans abandoned Donald Trump in the immediate aftermath of the Capitol riot in early 2021. But they came back to him as he showed his political hold on Republican voters endured and as the Biden presidency curdled. The former vice president, who died on Monday, continued to insist that Trump’s conduct had disqualified him for high office.
A few weeks after the riot, the same conviction moved his daughter, then-congresswoman Liz Cheney, to vote to impeach Trump. In 2024, it moved both Cheneys to endorse Kamala Harris over Trump: the first time either had supported a Democrat for president.
Some Republicans dismissed their endorsement as a function of their foreign-policy views, since both were well-known hawks. (The word “warmonger” often featured in these critiques.) But the Cheneys’ policy disagreements with Trump did not keep them from supporting him in two elections. They broke with him only after Jan. 6.
When they criticized him, though, it wasn’t only for the violence of that day but for the larger campaign that led to it: Trump’s months long effort to stay in power after losing the 2020 election. That campaign was a disgrace and an attack on the Constitution, and would have been even if Jan. 6 had unfolded peacefully and without disruption.
Trump said repeatedly that he had won (in a “landslide”). He assembled a team of aides who spun nutty theories about voting machines changing the tallies. They alleged widespread voter fraud had swung the race against him but never produced evidence for that assertion. They filed frivolous lawsuits to throw out the results of lawfully cast votes. He hounded state officials to ignore the law and the facts to indulge him. And, of course, he insisted, with no serious legal basis, that the vice president had the power to halt the certification of the election.
You don’t have to believe that Trump committed statutory crimes during these months to see that he attempted to subvert the Constitution. Trump would later suggest that could be brought back to office in the middle of President Joe Biden’s term, and call for the “termination” of any provisions of the Constitution that stood in the way.
All of this led Dick Cheney to conclude that Trump “can never be trusted with power again.” Both Cheneys took for granted that Harris could be trusted with power. Whether they were right about Harris is now a moot point.
What matters now is that they were right about Trump. The president keeps proving it. He has, for example, assigned himself the power to raise tariffs on imports from all over the world, even though the Constitution gives Congress authority over tariffs. He relies on a statute that gives him emergency powers, even though that statute doesn’t mention tariffs and had never previously been used to impose them. To judge from Trump’s recent statements, the latest supposed national emergency is that a Canadian province ran an advertisement implicitly criticizing him.
Cheney’s side of the argument over Trump lost in 2024. Enough voters didn’t share his concerns about Trump, or considered Harris worse, to put Trump back into office lawfully. Trump’s victory gave him all the legitimate powers of the presidency — along, unfortunately, with the practical ability to push the limits.
The above is from today's Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/11/04/dick-cheney-trump-capitol-riot-january-sixth/
