Liz Cheney tells ABC News ‘it's important for people to recognize' Trump is 'not a conservative’

this week featured another extraordinary moment in American politics Liz Cheney and her father former Vice President Dick Cheney long considered among the most conservative and partisan Republicans in the land announced they are endorsing kamla Harris for president the former vice president was once vilified by democrats labeled as a real life Darth Vader but his statement endorsing Harris offered an especially harsh view of Donald Trump in our nation's 248e history Dick Cheney wrote there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our Republic than Donald Trump he tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him he can never be trusted with power again of course the chenes Are Not Alone some of the most prominent Republican leaders of the last two decades have also declared Donald Trump unfit for office including 2012 Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney members of the McCain family the former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Mike Pence Donald Trump's own vice president and overnight we learned that former President George W bush will not be making any endorsement whatsoever in other words the only living former Republican president not named Trump is not supporting his party's Presidential nominee but despite all that the vast major majority of Republican voters continue to support Donald Trump our latest ABC News ipsos poll found that 93% 93% of likely Republican voters support Trump over Harris that's almost exactly the share of Republicans who voted for Trump four years ago will that change can KL Harris win over Republicans looking for an alternative to Trump Liz trany joins me now for her first television interview in months welcome to this week thank you great to be with you John so bottom line why did you make this decision to support Harris and why' you do it now yeah I uh you know I've been uh voting for 40 years uh my first uh vote I ever cast was for Ronald Reagan in 1984 uh I've never voted for a Democrat wow um and uh it tells you I think the stakes in this election um you know Donald Trump presents a challenge and a threat uh fundamentally to The Republic uh we see it on a daily basis uh somebody who uh was willing to use violence in order to attempt to seize power to stay in power um someone who represents uh unrecoverable uh catastrophe frankly in my view and um we have to do everything possible to ensure that he doesn't uh that he's not reelected given how close this race is uh in in my view again it's not enough you have many Republicans out there who are saying well uh you know we're we're not going to vote for him but we will we will write someone else in and I I think that this time around uh that's not enough that it's important to actually cast a vote uh for vice president Harris I I want to get to that in a moment but first you've made it abundantly clear that you have had policy disagreements with Harris you still have policy disagreements with Harris um but she has moderated her positions on a whole range of issues from where she was uh just you know just a few years ago did those moderations in the efforts to present kind of a moderate face at the at the Democratic Convention did that make the decision to endorse her easier um you know the I have never viewed this as a policy election right um but I think that that it's a very important point if you look at vice president Harris's speech for example at the democratic convention uh it is a speech that Ronald Reagan could have given it's a speech that George Bush could have given uh it's very much an Embrace and an understanding of um of the exceptional nature of this great nation a love of America uh a recognition that America is a special place a recognition that we all have to work together to ensure that and you contrast that to ensure that we maintain it you contrast that with what we hear from Donald Trump again on a daily basis that America is a failing Nation uh that America is a laughing stock um the trash talking of the United States of America very much is part of the message that Donald Trump is is pushing uh and so at the end of the day I think it's important for people to recognize he's not a conservative the policies that we're seeing him put forward including you know again on an almost daily basis this notion of embracing Global tariffs that he's going to uh impose 100% 200% tariffs that is fundamentally an anti-conservative policy it's also a policy that I point out to friends of mine uh who say well we're going to vote for him because of his economic conservatism um will choke off global trade uh will likely lead us down the path that we've seen before for example in the 1930s lead to uh at that point it was a depression the important thing for people to remember about something like the tariffs that he's promising including you know in addition to the fact that it's disastrous policy he can do it alone he does not need Congress if he were to be reelected uh to impose those massive tariffs that that will in fact kill the American economy and the global economy I in fact he did some of that when he was in the white house he's promising he's promising to go to a new level so but but before I leave Harris's policies back in 2019 when she was running for the Democratic nomination she took a range of positions Medicare for all she uh suggested she would favor abolishing ice de criminalizing illegal border crossings uh a whole range of of issues uh that she has now you know apparently changed would you still have been able to endorse KLA Harris if it was the comma Harris of 2019 and 2020 look I I think that um she has uh changed in a number of very important ways on issues that matter and I I would encourage um Independence to look at where she is on these policy issues today I would encourage independent to compare where she is today with where Donald Trump is on these issues um and so I I think from a policy perspective it is very important to recognize the change to recognize that she understands that this election is going to require a coalition of people from across the political Spectrum supporting her and and that also necessitates uh an understanding that you've got to govern for all of those people uh and on top of all of that um the Republicans have nominated somebody who who you know is depraved uh somebody who shows us every day um that that you know he has Tendencies uh and he's willing to embrace things that are fundamentally a danger to to this nation and to our constitution so the choice in my view is not a close one but have you spoken to Harris in process of making this and and can you tell us anything about that conversation I'm not going to talk about the details of the conversation except I I would just say um that that she has a full recognition and understanding of the stakes of this race and of the importance of um reflecting the broad Coalition that's coming together to support her and and and voting for her to stop Trump which you made it very clear is primary motivation here's one thing what kind of President do you think she would be look I I think you know she has shown us and you you can watch again through the convention you can watch uh in terms of the lessons that that she's learned as vice president um uh listen to her talk talk about her vision for this country her vision for the future I mean we we've been talking about Economic Policy um you know you look at national security policy and again there are certainly areas where I disagree with bid Administration national security policy where I've disagreed with vice president Harris's position on issues but when it comes to fundamental alliances when it comes to the importance of NATO for example uh and and how important it is for the United States to lead in the world we've seen a a sea change we now have a Republican Party that is embracing isolationism that is embracing Putin uh that you know we've seen just in the last week the Republican Vice Presidential nominee willing to appear willing to be interviewed by Tucker Carlson who is platforming pro-nazi is himself pushing pro-nazi propaganda that is not the party of Ronald Reagan and uh I believe strongly that if you're talking about a national security set of issues uh and you care about America's leadership role in the world uh a vote for vice president Harris is the right vote to make this time around it is an extraordinary reordering of the whole political system on when it comes to National Security who would Ronald Reagan be supporting in this race what do you think there there is absolutely no chance that Ronald Reagan would be supporting Donald Trump Donald Trump doesn't stand for any of the things that Ronald Reagan did uh and it's another place where I would urge my Republican colleagues uh both in the Congress but but across the country to really look at Donald Trump's policies to really look at the danger that he presents uh to look at at you know what he was willing to do to stay in power uh it's it's a firm rejection not just of traditional Republican policies but but of the Constitutional order on which this country depends so what do you say to those Republicans and there are a lot of them who are absolutely adamant they're not supporting Donald Trump but they're not taking the next step they're going to write somebody in and we we've heard this from Mitt Romney we've heard it from Mike Pence uh we've heard it from Larry Hogan we've heard it from a lot of a lot of Republicans that are certainly anti-trump why are they wrong in not taking the extra step well I would say you know given the closeness of this election particularly if you're going to find yourself voting in a swing state you've got to take the extra step if you really do recognize the threat that Donald Trump poses uh then then it's not enough to Simply say I'm not going to vote for him I I would also remind them you know what it's a secret ballot so I would prefer to have as many people as possible out publicly making the case but at the end of the day you just have to wrestle with your own conscience uh when you're there in in the voting booth and I I would expect that you will see uh far more Republicans and independents you know when the time comes and they've got to make that decision uh make the right decision it's you know there were a lot of talk uh during the primaries of the Nikki Haley voters and in a lot some states seemed like even when she stopped running almost a third of Republican voters were looking for an alternative to Trump and voting for Nikki Haley she's now saying that she is quote on standby uh to campaign for Donald Trump to help him get reelected she's also of course called him unhinged unqualified to be president uh diminished what do you make of Nikki Haley's position on this I mean look I um I I can't understand uh her position on this in any kind of a principled way uh I I think that you know the things that she said that she made clear uh when she was running in the primary uh th those things are true and and again you know we are those of us who are conservative uh those of us who believe in Fidelity to the Constitution uh have a responsibility and have a duty to recognize this is not about partisan politics and and the country is going to need to rebuild uh conservative true conservative movement when we're when we're through this election cycle but uh this November uh casting a vote for Donald Trump or riding someone in um means that you've made the decision in in too many instances that so many elected Republicans have made which is is to abandon the Constitution to tell yourself that this is just simply you know a partisan Choice it's that's not what we're facing This Time Around by the way are you still a republican I'm a conservative have you left the party I remember because we we spoke about this a while ago and you said if Trump the nominee you would not consider yourself a republican I I'm certainly not a trump Republican I am a conservative um I think that that what's happened to the Republican party today um you know is is uh is indefensible and I hope to be able to rebuild uh as I said after this after this cycle but I also think it's really important for us as we're thinking about rebuilding as we're thinking about the future of the country to recognize that that that at the end of the day the vast majority of people in this country um want to know fundamentally that that their elected officials are going to defend the peaceful transfer of power and that they are going to put the Constitution first and and as someone as you know who's been a lifelong Republican um it's heartbreaking to me to see what has happened to so many of the elected officials in my party and and I know we can do better Trump has obviously made retribution a theme of his campaign and he's talked about Prosecuting you he's done it a lot and did it just again after you endorsed KLA Harris um are are you worried about what will happen specifically to you if he if he gets elected president again I I don't think about it in those terms I think about it in terms of what's going to happen to our country uh and um you know it's it's it's not personal from my perspective with one exception and that is that I'm a mother I'm the mother of five kids and and it is per to me that my children grow up in a country where they know they can depend on the peaceful transfer of power that they grow up in a country where their elected officials put Fidelity to the Constitution first that's how it's personal to me uh it's personal to me when I when I listen to um you know fellow Republicans in the past say things to me like well it's fine there are guard rails you know he he he can't do uh that much damage it's just simply not true um that I mean on those guard rails we had the Supreme Court has now issued its immunity decision declaring essentially that that that that a president has immunity uh for anything that President may do virtually anything that that can be in any way defined as a as an official act how does that immunity decision by the Supreme Court what does it mean to the possibility of a second Trump Administration well it obviously makes makes the danger even greater um but when you look at what Donald Trump would be able to do with the levers of power um the extent to which he's already said he he will not abide by the rulings of the courts you know our courts can't enforce their own rulings if a president won't abide by the rulings of the courts the rule of law uh disintegrates immediately uh he's made clear that um he will for example pardon uh the the January 6th ERS and if you think about you know the Republican party this is another point where they're they're presenting themselves now as the party of Law and Order you know Donald Trump sat for hours and watched people in his name brutalize the police officers law enforcement at the United States capital he sat for hours and and watched on television and ignored the pleas of his family and others saying you have to tell the mob to go home um so this is not a president who believes in the rule of law this is a president who will use violence to achieve his own ends uh and I think that the the potential of the damage that he could do were he uh elected again is significant it's also important to remember on January 6th the person who perhaps played the most single most important role in addition to the law enforcement officers who physically fought was vice president Pence because he refused to do what Donald Trump was was telling him to do ille legally and unconstitutionally throw out votes JD Vance who Donald Trump has picked to be his vice presidential running mate has said specifically that that he would in fact do that that he would put Donald Trump's orders and instructions ahead of the Constitution and I it's it is hard to imagine a much Graver danger than a president and a vice president who will put themselves above the Constitution do you think he'll ever be held accountable for what happened on January 6th uh I think number one it is up to us the voters to hold him accountable in November not to reelect someone who uh did what he did number two I think that people need to look at uh what he argues and what his lawyers are arguing in court in the January 6th case in particular um which is you know trying at every moment to suppress that evidence the select committee put on a significant amount of evidence available publicly uh transcri thousands and thousands of pages of transcripts and DOD Trump has had years um and the special counil has you know come up with even more developed even additional evidence testimony in front of the grand jury by those who are the most senior leaders the American people deserve to hear that evidence and Donald Trump is doing everything he can to prevent it because he knows what those senior officials said he's seen the evidence and the testimony American people deserve to see it but ultimately we have to hold him responsible and accountable and we have to make sure that he's never in a position of power again all right Liz Cheney thank you very much for joining us live here on this great to be with you John thank you