Mainstream media will love Cheney, but the country won't: Newt Gingrich
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said he believes Rep. Liz Cheney has no political future after she was defeated in the Wyoming GOP congressional primary by a Trump-endorsed candidate.
The United States could expedite its healing process if the left, right, Trump critics like Liz Cheney, and the media accepted the modern Republican Party as the "populist" party of Donald Trump, according to a Washington Post column.
Written by Gary Abernathy, the Thursday opinion piece criticized Cheney’s malleable definition of patriotism. While today Cheney, the Wyoming congresswoman who was defeated in her primary this week by a pro-Trump challenger, defines patriotism as opposition to Trump, in 2013, she claimed patriotism was "obstructing" the agenda of former President Barack Obama.
"Patriotism is apparently a moving target," Abernathy wrote, before setting his sights on those still enraptured by the Republican Party.
Abernathy surmised that the "jilted lovers" of the GOP believe the party has only lost its way for the time being, but the Post contributing columnist believes the Republicans’ lukewarm reception to John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012 showed the "bloom was already off the rose."
STRATEGISTS SUGGEST IT'S 'HIGHLY DOUBTFUL' LIZ CHENEY COULD WIN THE WHITE HOUSE IN 2024
FILE - House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., listen to questions during a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol, on May 27, 2020, in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The column asserted that instead of constantly attacking and condemning Republicans for their choices, everyone should just accept them as the "populist, Make American Great Again party" of Trump, and there is no turning back.
"Establishment Republicans who care to remain even modestly influential can pick up an oar and help row. Or, they can jump ship. Lectures and recriminations are futile," Abernathy added.
But, Abernathy continued on by predicting that national bitterness and division could be eased if GOP critics stopped portraying the Republican Party as a terrorist or conspiracy organization.
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK - AUGUST 10: Former U.S. President Donald Trump leaves Trump Tower to meet with New York Attorney General Letitia James for a civil investigation on August 10, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by James Devaney/GC Images) (James Devaney/GC Images)
"Millions of rank-and-file Republicans having no connection to fringe militias with exaggerated influence roll their eyes at the insults hurled their way. But the relentless hostility directed toward them across media platforms, and year after year of investigatory agencies targeting Trump, serve only to keep them defiantly in the former president’s corner," Abernathy added. "The more you call millions of hard-working, patriotic Americans racists, cultists or terrorists, the more you push them away — and then complain that they’re not listening."
The column also threw cold water on the idea that Democrats and the media are chastising Trump and his party because they are "offended or alarmed." Though it may appear "shocking," Abernathy concluded that their words are only meant to maintain or expand their power.
"If you think otherwise, your innocence is enviable," he wrote.
With all these factors in mind, Abernathy urged the "old flames" of the GOP to stop "pitiably pining away," and instead lock arm-in-arm with the media and Democrats to accept the new Republican Party and heal America.
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A general view of the exterior of The Washington Post Company headquarters in Washington, March 30, 2012. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo)
"For those former lovers who can’t agree to be friends, the best way to move on is to meet someone else. Maybe they could be introduced to someone in the new Forward Party. They seem nice," Abernathy concluded.
Harriet Hageman defeated Cheney, who earned Trump's ire by lambasting him on the Jan. 6 House committee, in the GOP primary race by 37 points to represent Wyoming’s at-large congressional district. After the landslide defeat, Cheney announced she was launching a new organization with the main goal of keeping Trump from retaking the Oval Office.
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The group, called The Great Task, gets its name from a phrase in the Gettysburg Address, and Cheney invoked President Abraham Lincoln in calling for the Republican Party to return to its roots.
Fox News’ Ronn Blitzer contributed to this report.
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