House GOP's Liz Cheney warns election challenge makes 'exceptionally dangerous precedent'

Rep. Liz Cheney, the Number Three elected House leader, has warned colleagues that an election challenge backed by a dozen GOP senators and dozens more House members threatens to ‘steal’ states’ ability to run their own elections.

Cheney, who chairs the House GOP Conference and is the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, spelled out her concerns in a 21-page memo that shreds fraud claims put forward by President Trump and his lawyers – and quotes numerous admonitions from judges who slapped down ‘kraken’ lawsuits.

Amid the brewing civil war within the GOP, her lengthy summary calls out White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany for her claims about the import of a case that went bust, as well as former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, who has met with Trump at the White House to plot his strategy to overturn the election result.

‘There is substantial reason for concern about the precedent Congressional objections will set here,’ Cheney writes in advance of Wednesday’s joint congressional meeting, where some Trump loyalists are vowing to object to seating electors in states that went for Joe Biden where Trump claims there was fraud.

‘By objecting to electoral slates, members are unavoidably asserting that Congress has the authority to overturn elections and overrule state and federal courts. Such objections set an exceptionally dangerous precedent, threatening to steal states’ explicit constitutional responsibility for choosing the President and bestowing it instead on Congress,’ she writes, in a document obtained by DailyMail.com.

‘This is directly at odds with the Constitution’s clear text and our core beliefs as Republicans. Democrats have long attempted, unconstitutionally, to federalize every element of our nation—including elections. Republicans should not embrace Democrats’ unconstitutional position on these issues,’ according to Cheney.

She also blasts a proposal put forward by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and other Republicans to form a commission that would rush to put out a report on election fraud – despite the date set in statute for counting the votes of the Electoral College. Inauguration Day is just over two weeks away.

‘The recent proposal for a new ‘Commission’ is even more problematic. It is not reasonable to anticipate that any commission so formed could wrap up its work in 10 days; indeed, the subsequent debate at both the state and federal level would likely require months,’ she writes.

‘Did those proposing a new commission realize that they were in essence proposing to delay the inaugural? Did they mean to set up a new future precedent where the inaugural is delayed and we have an ‘Acting President?’ For how long? Who decides when that process is over? Will that require another Act of Congress?’

She continued: ‘Could the Acting President veto any such future Congressional action? If Congress has authority to create such a commission now, are state elections, recounts and state law legal challenges just ‘make-work’ until Congress gets around to investigating and deciding who should be President? Members who support the new commission proposal may need to answer each of these questions. And in particular, Members should be prepared to answer how such a commission would be justified by the actual text of our founding documents.’

Cheney then goes on to quote numerous judges who slapped down suits by Trump and his allies, including Powell, who once said she would unleash the kraken with her legal barrage. 

She quotes Judge Timothy Batten, a federal Bush appointee in Georgia, slapping down one Powell kraken case.

‘Finally, in their complaint, the Plaintiffs essentially ask the Court for perhaps the most extraordinary relief ever sought in any Federal Court in connection with an election. They want this Court to substitute its judgment for that of two-and-a-half million Georgia voters who voted for Joe Biden, and this I am unwilling to do,’ she quotes Batten ruling.

She also goes after McEnany for her televised claim about a Nevada case that fell apart.

‘The President’s spokesperson, Kayleigh McEnany stated on television (Hannity, Dec. 2, 2020) that this was the ‘most important case’ and would finally vet the Trump legal claims. The Court did indeed vet all the legal claims, including allegations regarding Dominion voting machines, and issued a detailed ruling that the evidence presented did not support the President’s claims,’ Cheney writes. 

Taking on conspiracy theory claims about Dominion voting machines that Trump continues to voice, she wrote: ‘The Court assessed evidence submitted regarding the Dominion voting machine allegations specifically and concluded the evidence was not credible.’

‘President Trump’s legal team appealed each of the issues up through the Nevada Supreme Court. That Court unanimously affirmed the ruling of the trial court judge, explaining: ‘Despite our earlier order asking appellants to identify specific findings with which they take issue, appellants have not pointed to any unsupported factual findings, and we have identified none,” she notes.

She also quotes U.S. District Judge Linda Parker, whose blistering ruling told Powell that ‘The people have spoken’ in tossing out her suit. 

‘[T]o be perfectly clear, Plaintiffs’ equal protection claim is not supported by any allegation that Defendants’ alleged schemes caused votes for President Trump to be changed to votes for Vice President Biden,’ Cheney quotes the Barack Obama-appointed judge ruling.

‘For example, the closest Plaintiffs get to alleging that physical ballots were altered in such a way is the following statement in an election challenger’s sworn affidavit: ‘I believe some of these workers were changing votes that had been cast for Donald Trump and other Republican candidates.’  

Cheney’s paper is a departure from the line some Republicans have sought to straddle – stressing the possibility of fraud and Trump’s right to allege it even after scores of legal rulings against Trump and his allies, recounts, and state certifications.

In his statement announcing he, too, opposed election challenges, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said: ‘I share the concerns of many Arkansans about irregularities in the presidential election, especially in states that rushed through election-law changes to relax standards for voting-by-mail.’

‘I also share their disappointment with the election results. I therefore support a commission to study the last election and propose reforms to protect the integrity of our elections,’ he said. 

But Cotton added that states, not Congress, are entrusted to oversee elections and it would be a dangerous precedent for Congress to overturn the results of the November vote.

 ‘I will not oppose the counting of certified electoral votes on January 6,’ Cotton, a potential presidential candidate, wrote.