Rep. Liz Cheney says she hasn’t ruled out a 2024 presidential run

Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney says she has not ruled out running for president in 2024. Her only goal in doing so, she said, would be to prevent former President Donald Trump from being reelected.

“I’ll make a decision about ’24 down the road,” Cheney said on ABC News’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos. “The single most important thing is protecting the nation from Donald Trump.”

Cheney, 55, was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for “incitement of insurrection” and “willfully inciting violence against the government” at the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Cheney said at the time: “The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack.”

Cheney is now the vice chair of the House committee investigating January 6, which mostly focuses on Trump’s alleged involvement.

Asked in the interview if Trump needs to be prosecuted, Cheney said: “Ultimately, the Justice Department will decide that. I think we may well as a committee have a view on that and if you just think about it from the perspective of what kind of man knows that a mob is armed and sends the mob to attack the Capitol and further incites that mob when his own vice president is under threat, when the Congress is under threat. It’s just — it’s very chilling and I think certainly we will, you know, continue to present to the American people what we found.”

“A man as dangerous as Donald Trump can absolutely never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again,” she said of Trump’s possible 2024 presidential run, which some have said may be announced by the end of July. “I don’t think the party would survive that.”

“Those of us who believe in Republican principles and ideals have a responsibility to try to lead the party back to what it can be,” Cheney added. She went further, saying that Trump “betrayed” Americans by continuously claiming that the 2020 election was stolen from him – a claim that he has yet to prove.

“Millions of people, millions of Republicans have been betrayed by Donald Trump. And that is a really painful thing for people to recognize and to admit, but it’s absolutely the case. And they’ve been betrayed by him, by the big lie, and by — by what he continues to do and say to tear apart our country and tear apart our party. And I think we have to reject that,” Cheney said.