By TIPPINSIGHTS EDITORIAL BOARD, TIPP Insights

Only a consummate Washington political insider, like Liz Cheney, can go so low: vow that she will continue her prosecutorial Vice Chair role on the J6 committee after a humiliating loss in her home state of Wyoming.

Cheney is a Member of the House of Representatives, a privileged position that requires her to answer to the people who sent her to Washington. 71% of Wyoming voters voted for someone else in Tuesday’s primaries. About the same percentage of voters had chosen her in 2020, two years ago. And she was winning by similar margins going back to 2016.

So, what changed?

Cheney went on a non-stop campaign to ridicule former President Trump for denying the 2020 election results and for what she says was his 7-step master strategy to attack the Capitol on January 6. She is free to believe what she wishes, but Congressional representation also means she has to serve as an ambassador of her constituents’ interests. When a supermajority of Wyoming residents disagreed with her “holier-than-thou” feeling of moral superiority, she must obey her voters.

The liberal media fawned over her crushing election defeat in glorified terms. She is thinking of running for the 2024 presidential election; she was brave for bucking her party and standing on principle, even if it meant losing an election; one career ended, and another is beginning. Imagine if Trump were defeated by such an overwhelming margin. Would he even merit a press interview?

After such a devastating loss, one would expect Cheney to retreat in remorse, chastised by her constituents. But Cheney did just the opposite. She likened herself to Abraham Lincoln in her concession speech. “Abraham Lincoln was defeated in elections for the Senate and the House before he won the most important election of all,” Cheney said. She went on to quote from Lincoln’s Gettysburg speech: that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. Yet, Cheney showed little respect for the people who elected her in 2020.

For a candidate who so miserably lost, she appeared on NBC’s Today show, where Savannah Guthrie lobbed one softball question after another. Cheney announced the launch of the Great Task PAC to educate Americans about the “threats to democracy” and oppose any effort by Trump to return to the White House.

Guthrie never asked Cheney about the ‘threats to democracy’ resulting from the various last-minute election laws that the Democrats pushed through in 2020. We have pointed out numerous times in these columns that what changed in 2020 was the number of people who voted absentee in states that had little experience with no-excuse mail-in balloting. The list of remedies they sought were relaxed rules to accept late mail-in ballots and eliminating restrictions to verify ballot signatures against voter rolls. As the Vice Chair, Cheney could have expanded the J6 investigation into these irregularities. But she never did.

Cheney’s Wyoming constituents do not want her to use her official power to deny Trump’s return to the White House. They correctly believe that only voters should have the ability to decide who should lead them. They said so overwhelmingly on Tuesday night, yet, she thumbed her nose at them all and ridiculed the people who sent her to the House by continuing to serve on a hyper-partisan committee.

Cheney takes a righteous position whenever she is confronted. “This primary election is over,” she told her supporters Tuesday night. “But now the real work begins.” If she is the moral leader she claims to be, she should immediately step down from the J6 role. She has lost the confidence of her voters, and the voters spoke loudly this week.

Lame ducks in Congress typically lie low, working behind the scenes on legislation as they begin winding down their operations in Washington. But Cheney wants to do the opposite. She will be front and center during the prime-time bonanza of shows in September, after the absurdly long kabuki theater displays of early summer. The defense could not call witnesses or provide material at the J6 hearings.

Cheney’s overtly stated political ambitions violate the spirit of federal election laws that prohibit Members from using their official positions to promote their private candidacies or PACs.

Voters have spoken at the ballot box. Cheney aspires to be like Abraham Lincoln, who would have retreated if the people he represented had little faith in him. She should respect her constituents’ disapproval of her actions. She should immediately resign from the J6 committee. If she has a political future at all as the future of a Never-Trump GOP, such an action can tremendously help.

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