After Trump's attack on Cheney, America is now on notice, says retired Republican judge
By: CNN
His supporters will continue to support him no matter what he says or does.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
TRANSCRIPT
Cheney is responding to these dangerous and reckless comments from Donald Trump last night. She's a radical Warhawk. Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrel shooting at her. Okay. Let's see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face. Liz Cheney this morning saying this quote in response, this is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death. These are comments like that. The repeated talk of the enemy within, from within that have marked Trump's entire presidency of late and candidacy of late. An NPR analysis found that Donald Trump has made more than 100 threats since 2022 to go after his perceived enemies. It's also the focus of a New York Times opinion piece by prominent conservative legal scholar. Retired federal appeals court judge Michael Luttig. He says this in the opinion piece there could be no higher duty of American citizens than to decisively repudiate a man who betrayed the nation when he was previously entrusted with the highest office in the land, and now threatens the persecution of American citizens who have crossed him. In the almost 250 years since the founding of the nation. No president before Donald Trump has ever so betrayed America. Judge Michael Luttig joins us now. Judge, thank you so much for being here. What Donald Trump said about Liz this morning, Kate. Thank you judge. What Donald Trump said about Liz Cheney last night. His allies in the past have explained it away and likely will explain it away, as he doesn't really mean what he's saying. What do you see as the danger when you hear him talk about his enemies like this? Okay, those despicable words spoken by the Republican nominee for the presidency, who Americans will either elect or reject as the next president of the United States of America in just five days, were reprehensible. They are unprecedented. I cannot tell you how many emails and texts I received this morning that just said, oh my God. And the only reply to those messages I can think of, Kate was, yes, oh my God. Every citizen of the country, especially Republicans, has an obligation to themselves and to America to watch the video from last night, as I did before coming on This morning and pondered those un-American words by Donald Trump before they cast their votes on Tuesday. The nation is now on notice if it was not already, if Americans return Donald Trump to the white House after those comments about our fellow American Liz Cheney statements that Donald Trump would make about any one of his countless other enemies from within, those who voted for him will get what they deserve. Apropos of his reprehensible words last night, of course, three nights ago, Vice President Harris spoke the most powerful words that anyone running against Donald Trump could ever speak. She said, I will give those who disagree with me a seat at the table. Those are the words of a president of the United States. Those were the words that Americans, especially Republicans and independents, need to hear and desperately want to hear from their next president. You said in your opinion piece, judge, that this is not a difficult decision for voters. Why is it, then, such a close race, do you think? It's beyond my comprehension at this point. Kate. I will say this long before last night's insidious comments, just talking about people. People. Okay, not not politics. It has been beyond my comprehension how or why any woman in America would vote for Donald Trump. For all of the sordid reasons we all know all too well by nominating Donald Trump as their standard bearer. I think the Republican Party has created the perfect storm for the election of the first woman president in America, and I fully expect that the women in America will elect Kamala Harris, that first woman president, this coming Tuesday. And, Kate, if we ever needed a woman president, it is now, I know I would be proud and proud for America to have a woman president, a woman president, and the person of the vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris. And judge, I mean, you have long been a Republican. This is long been your party. You you write very powerfully about what direction you think your party has taken and what has happened to your party in your opinion piece. And you have spoken about it. And there's also then leaning on your expertise in law, the decision on presidential immunity, then coming from the Supreme Court, giving presidents broad immunity from prosecution. How much does that that decision influence your view on a second Trump presidency? Well, it's it's not so much important of how it influences my view, but it ought to influence the American people's view of Donald Trump in particular. The decision by the Supreme Court has essentially giving Donald Trump absolute immunity from prosecution for crimes that he did commit against the United States of America and may commit against the United States of America if he's elected president of the United States. Again, was itself a decision that, for the first time in American history, put the president of the United States of America above the law. No longer can it ever be said that in America, no person is above the law. The Supreme Court of the United States held that Donald Trump is above the law. Judge Michael Luttig, thank you so much for coming on. Judge. Appreciate your time.
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Indeed. Voting for Trump is irrational, irresponsible and unpatriotic.
Oh my God was the reaction that flooded his email and his response was, Yes, Oh my God.
Every day it's something even more horrific than the rest from this 'man' and yet the indefensible defense of the indefensible continues....
Oh my God!
my cousin in DC says the alphabet agencies are on high alert with no intention of being accommodating to seditionists ...
Thank you, TiG, for taking the trouble to post the transcript of your youtube seed. It was very considerate.
Mom described our politics as "Nelson Rockefeller Republicans", as liberal Republicans. My parents voted for Kentucky in 1960, but did not regularly vote Democratic till after GHW Bush. Trump's MAGA gop is nothing like the once upper case Grand Old Party of Abe Lincoln. It took fifty years, but the good reasons to be a Republican back then are mythical. That party does not even exist anymore! Kamala Harris is the only establishment candidate for President in 2024...
Today there are not necessarily good people on both sides anymore!
In many ways, Trumpism has been a continuation of McCarthyism...
And the linkage to McCarthyism today is Crooked Donald's 'slavish' devotion to Roy Cohn (Deceased.).
Joe McCarthy's number one henchman Roy Cohn had four special chosen proteges whom he taught all of his dirty tricks. They were Lee Atwater, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and Donald J Trump...
Makes sense, Roy was a NYC Democrat.
Luttig! Guessed it just on the headline alone.
That man knows how to play to the progressive media.
An expected response from those who have no argument, ignore the content (Trump's sick comment about Cheney) and just attack the closest target.
It's an example of deflection and misdirection.
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No, the words from the turd's mouth strike again.
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Who did Liz send off to war?
It is a waste of time Tig. It is a cult. They even call Trump riding around in a garbage truck "brilliant". And Trump isnt going to go away if he loses, unless its to prison. There is too much money to be made in fleecing these chumps.
Painting a graphic image of Liz Cheney (or any of his opponents) in front of a firing squad is yet another look into the mind of this entirely unfit scoundrel.
What drives you to constantly defend him?
Hatred.
No question in my mind ... this is cultish behavior. When people follow a demagogue no matter what he says or does, that is one of the defining characteristics of cultish behavior.
That does not explain it.
In your world, people in front of a firing squad are given rifles to fire back?[✘]
To be fair, he didn't say to line her up in front of a firing squad, because he did say Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrel shooting at her. One does not get to stand in front of a firing squad with a rifle for oneself. I believe he was talking about sending her to war. Once again, his own poor choice of words leave people scratching their heads
his message of having 9 rifles pointed at her head was quite enough, in and of itself ...
Yes, it was. How about if someone sends him to Syria with a rifle (hell I'll give him a shotgun) and face down the enemy with loaded rifles....with the safety off
Do you have anything to say about the article or Trumps threat, Sean?
you'll probably read it as soon as the tap dancing recital is finished ...
This goes beyond loyalty to party over country. This is a demand for loyalty to Trump above all else.
Do those who blame Dems for assassination attempts on Trump (by conservatives, even) because Dems call him names hear his calls for violence? Or do they reflexively excuse them because they come from Trump's mouth?
This would have disqualified anyone else.
I don't always agree with Cheney's politics, but I admire her outspokenness.
This is what integrity and patriotism looks like.
Agreed.
Agreed, I also admire her for having the courage and spine to speak against that traitor long before anyone else.
only in maga bizarro world is liz cheney portrayed as too moderate to be a maga republican ...
IMO she is more of a MAN than Trump is, and if I were an American, and given the choices, I would not only vote for her but campaign for her, notwithstanding my having already been told that voting for her is like giving the vote to Trump.
Agreed. When one sees something definitively wrong in part or in whole having the inner fortitude to stand up for truth and its equal, "righteousness" speaks volumes!
Trump wanted his followers to fantasize along with him about Liz Cheney being executed by a nine person firing squad.
There is no other rational explanation for the use of the word nine.
Exactly how I interpreted it.
Isn't publicly death wishing a politician considered to be an offence in America? When it comes to Trump doing it, I think it's more of a command to his cult, sort of like his "fight like hell" goading the Jan6 cult.
In the context a theoretically criminally immune President Trump could then technically legally order her execution, what Trump said could be deemed a criminal assault under many state's laws!
not when it is the former 'president' traitor threatening ....that's not what he was 'trying to mean'
Yes and no. It is considered a 'death knell' for the campaign of any candidate who chooses to make the statement (and may elicit a visit ("wellness check") from authorities to inquire about the mental state of s/he who makes the statement. However, Crooked Donald his 'graced' to have a party covering his indulgences by not condemning him and so we're all stuck. Just like the congress is stuck when "GOPers" won't vote with the other side to accomplish good for this country.
Better follow Cheney's advice and waterboard Trump before sending him to Gitmo. Why are Democrats embracing Dick Cheney and Liz Cheney of all people?
Who is embracing them? They have the courage and spines to speak out regarding the traitor unlike the spineless gop maga cult.
Does one need to embrace a politician to oppose another's violent rhetoric? Is that the new populist prerequisite?
Thank you. I'm so sick of the fucking ignorance.
One wouldn't think so. But that doesn't explain why Kamala Harris campaigned with Liz Cheney as a political partner; just as Harris campaigns with Tim Walz, her VP pick. That doesn't explain why Kamala Harris has promised there will be at least one Republican serving in her cabinet.
In opposition to Trump. I don't see why that is difficult to comprehend? Many Republicans are endorsing Harris over Trump and some are showing up at Harris campaign spots.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand she's trying to appeal to moderates. Hopefully we'll have the chance to see how moderate she can be given the chance.
It appears that some people don't understand that it actually is possible to see decency in people who are generally politically opposed to oneself, and act accodingly.
How does Harris avoid owing a political debt to those rather hard-line Republicans? The only reason Kamala Harris would campaign with those Republicans is because she needs them to win. And the only reason those Republicans would campaign with Harris is because they are expecting something in return.
That's how politics works.
Dick Cheney is now considered a moderate by Democrats? Liz Cheney is no longer a hard-line Republican? Strange bedfellows.
Or it could just be enough people find Trump repugnant enough to cooperate?
You are so far into the weeds now... reel it back to whom I was actually speaking of and don't be purposefully obtuse.
Kamala Harris said recently that anyone who disagrees with her has a seat at her table. How refreshing!
Now who is it that has a list of enemies from within and without which grows by the day?
That would be Life Imitating Art - as in one of the final episodes of The West Wing TV series wherein Jimmy Smits, playing Matthew Santos, the Democrat PotUS-elect, named Alan Alda, playing his Republican opponent Arnold Vinick in the election, to be his government's Foreign Secretary.
So, that's where Kamala Harris got the idea? It is becoming difficult to differentiate between political reality and political fiction.
Only she herself could answer that question. I believe that her purpose, as it is in the TV series, is to start a healing process to hopefully reverse the widening destructive political divisiveness that is hamstringing, to the extent of political violence, the nation.
The Republican Party is divided over retaining Reagan or kicking Reagan to the curb. Kamala Harris choosing any Republican will likely be viewed as meddling in the affairs of the Republican Party.
If Kamala Harris wants to switch parties and become Republican then she should do so. Otherwise she is just trying to score points by feeding the flames of division within the Republican Party. That's a very Clintonesque style of politics; dirty and deliberately divisive. That's Joe Biden's style of politics; deliberately starting a dog fight and stepping back to whine about it. That's how Biden entangled the US in another decades long quagmire in Ukraine. Biden's deliberately divisive politics worked since no one is talking about Afghanistan now.
The Republicans endorsing Kamala Harris does not represent the future of the party. If those Republicans really were the future of the Republican Party then Trump wouldn't be the nominee.
This contrarian, find negativity/conspiracy in everything style is obnoxious.
On the R side:
On the D side:
Other examples in history.
Some presidents find it valuable to give a seat at the table to the opposing party.
Bipartisanship is "switching parties" and "divisive"? In what world? Accepting the political assistance of a person with whom one disagrees on many points but agrees on one major point is "starting a dogfight"? Reaching across the aisle to work with one's usual opponents is literally the opposite of divisive.
That's some kind of contrived victimhood bullshit going on there, Nerm. Harris is playing the game, with class, and you seem to resent her success. Better to just admit the Republicans have backed a lousy candidate and do something about it in four years.
How does this info change the fact that Kamala Harris choosing a Reagan Republican to serve on her cabinet will be divisive?
Don't people remember that the 2016 Republican primaries was an existential battle between the TEA Party and MAGA. Reagan Republicans weren't even on the stage unless Marco Rubio is considered a Reagan Republican.
Everyone complains about Donald Trump but completely ignore that the TEA Party changed the Republican Party (diminishing the influence of Reagan) and Trump's MAGA won control over that changed Republican Party in 2016. Trump further changed an already changed Republican Party.
Citing pre-Trump political history simply is not relevant. It's not the same Republican Party that Barack Obama had to contend with.
Kamala Harris cannot choose just any Republican and hope to unify the country. In fact, that may be impossible since there are still several warring factions within the Republican Party. If Kevin McCarthy couldn't unify the Republican Party then why would anyone think a Democrat like Kamala Harris could? Harris is going to have difficulty holding the Democratic Party together; she really doesn't have any political capital.
Kamala Harris attempting to meddle in the internecine Republican fights won't go over well. The Republican base won't let Harris get away with picking winners and loser in the Republican Party.
For example, Harris naming Liz Cheney to a cabinet position could ignite a firestorm. Any Republican Harris nominates would have to pass confirmation in the Senate. Just how hard will Harris fight for her Republican nominee? And will Democrats stand for that?
It's kind of an avoidance of simple yes men and women on the team.
By the way, it STILL remains interesting that with all the sham politicking Crooked Donald is doing. . . that some conservatives and some liberals can stand in the same voter lines (the lines are not politically SEGREGATED) together. It will be STRIKING (to say the least!) when you see families split up into different voting lines to render their votes in the future (should it ever get that bad)!
I hope it NEVER gets that bad!
It strikes me that this is either a bit of projection on your part, or fear that she might actually be successful in operating in a bipartisan manner, putting those who worship at the feet of Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Newt Gingrich to shame.
The fact remains that whoever Harris nominates must be confirmed by the Senate.
You use the word "divided", and IMO never before in my memory has the American government been SO divided: Republican vs Democrat, some Republicans vs other Republicans, some Democrats vs other Democrats. Even FAMILIES are divided to the extent that they can't sit down for a peaceful meal together. What a way to run a country. What a way to get things done that need to be done. What a way to sell America's form of Democracy around the world, and don't think the rest of the world isn't watching.
Time will tell. IMO Trump's being gone is probably the only way the Republican Party will see unity.
And some wonder why the public is nearly at each other's throats! Progress is denied when politicians refuse to 'serve the people' by serving their own constituents' whims alone. It is no way to run a nation. . . as we have become a distraction to our own successes.
You're bellyaching over your own speculations.
In opposition to Trump. I don't see why that is difficult to comprehend? Many Republicans are endorsing Harris over Trump and some are showing up at Harris campaign spots.
How does Harris avoid owing a political debt to those rather hard-line Republicans? The only reason Kamala Harris would campaign with those Republicans is because she needs them to win. And the only reason those Republicans would campaign with Harris is because they are expecting something in return
That's how politics works.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand she's trying to appeal to moderates. Hopefully we'll have the chance to see how moderate she can be given the chance.
Dick Cheney is now considered a moderate by Democrats? Liz Cheney is no longer a hard-line Republican? Strange bedfellows.
the constitution, the rule of law, and country over party ...
America First?
Sure, as long as that is just a general statement and not a copyrighted Trumpism.
nazi phrase knock off?
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'Somebody' is working mightily to change the topic of discussion. . . I wonder who that could be. Shameful mental imaginings of a woman, any woman, being shot in the face and by high-powered rifles (which are what is available today) is put forward by a GOP republican candidate who once was a sitting president who DEFINITELY knows better (because he did not like it when it happened to him) and few if anybody on the Right is condemning the comment - including Tucker Carlson. And, these two, Crooked Donald and Tucker Carlson are classifying themselves as the PRETEND "protectors of women and girls."
Reflect on that for a 'minute.'
But not girls and women like Amber Berman, Nevaeh Crain, Josseli Barnica, or Liz Cheney!
When/if Crooked Donald gets back into the White House he will deploy fear and intimidate to control the country. . . it is even likely that some conservatives have a strategy where he never relinquishes power again. Worse, he deploys 'goons' to use fear and intimidation tactics and strategies to control CONGRESSIONAL POWER and have it supported by a PERMANENT some conservative SCOTUS!
THINK ABOUT IT DEEPLY PEOPLE! THIS SHIT IS REAL! AND IT'S COMING TO 'FRUITION' IF NOT STOPPED THIS TUESDAY!
FIGHT FOR THIS COUNTRY YOU LOVE! DO NOT GIVE IT OVER AND NOT BE ABLE TO REDEEM IT LATER!
What happens if elected Crooked Donald places someone in charge of the FBI who listens in on personal and professional phone calls of private citizens across the country?
You’ve confused the FBI with the NSA.
I'm thinking FBI's longest serving director, J. Edgar Hoover. (Yes, I am thinking Crooked Donald wants a J. Edgar Hoover 'onboard' in 2025 should he win.)
Perhaps, but the FBI doesn't have the technical infrastructure to monitor the nation's phone calls, the NSA does.
The NSA was around in J. Edgar Hoover's time (formed 1952). Crooked Donald is always looking for his "Roy Cohn" revival . . . perhaps he will look to revive J. Edgar Hoover. If one listens closely to him it sure sounds like he has the audacity to do just that!
With this comment I will end here. The last word can be yours if you wish it.
Over 80 years ago and very selective wiretaps. Today only the NSA can operate at the scale you suggest.