NYT writer argues Liz Cheney, who lost her primary by 37 points, 'won' 'in the ways that count'

close

Video

Katie Pavlich: There is no chance Liz Cheney will be president

Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich explains the aftermath of Tuesday's Wyoming Republican primary and the effects it will have on Liz Cheney's political future

The New York Times published an op-ed Wednesday that argued that Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who lost her primary race by over 37 points, actually won because she is morally superior to Republican voters. 

The piece, titled "In the Ways That Count, Liz Cheney Won," was written by Frank Bruni, a contribution opinion writer who was on the Times' staff for over 25 years, for his weekly newsletter. 

While Bruni conceded that "Liz Cheney was defeated overwhelmingly in her House Republican primary in Wyoming" and that "her time in Congress is winding down", he argued that despite this, "it’s impossible for me to say that she lost."

He wrote that Cheney "chose the tough world of truth over Donald Trump’s underworld of lies" and "that’s a moral victory."

Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., gives her opening remarks as Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., left, looks on, as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds its first public hearing to reveal the findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 9, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) (AP Images)

JOE ROGAN SPECULATES THE GOAL OF FBI'S TRUMP RAID WAS TO ‘KNOCK HIM OUT OF THE 2024 ELECTIONS'

Bruni argued that Cheney's "cleareyed vision to see Trump for what he is…makes her a champion in the ways that count most."

"Come January, she will no longer be Representative Cheney because she represents steadfast principle in an era with a devastating deficit of it," Bruni wrote. 

"History will smile on her for that," he continued.

Bruni argued that "there could be no dispute, at least not among honest and sensible patriots, about the correctness of her positions on Trump, on her party’s fealty to him and on the peril that he poses to the future of American democracy."

The Jan. 6 committee, which includes anti-Trump Republicans Liz Cheney and Adam Kingzinger, will air their Thursday hearing during primetime.  (Andrew Harnik/Pool via REUTERS)

CNN ANALYST: LIZ CHENEY'S POLITICAL PARTY ‘IS THE BELTWAY MEDIA’

Implicit in his argument is that the people who voted against Cheney, in his view, are not honest and sensible.

Bruni noted that he "was sad and angry when she celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade" but that he "grudgingly respected Cheney’s fidelity to her beliefs and readiness to alienate her newest fans."

"[H]eroes are as messy as villains," Bruni wrote of Cheney. "But a hero she is." 

MENDON, IL - JUNE 25: Donald Trump arrives to give remarks during a Save America Rally with former US President Donald Trump at the Adams County Fairgrounds on June 25, 2022 in Mendon, Illinois. (Photo by Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images) (Photo by Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

He concluded, "The losers on Tuesday night were the Republican Party, which needs her more than she needs it, and the United States, which needs rescue from its ruinous indulgence of Trump. Cheney has made that case as forcefully as anyone, holding on to the greatest prize of all: her dignity."