OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Republican Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney keeps falling even after her defeat in the Wyoming Republican primary.
Her concession speech was filmed by the same man who has helped the January 6 committee hearings, former ABC News president James Goldston, CNN reported:
Goldston, the former president of ABC News, was surveying the scene at Cheney’s campaign event at a cattle ranch outside Jackson. He and a small film crew were taking in the picturesque landscape, with the Grand Tetons in the distance and the Wyoming prairie bathed in the evening sunlight, in what will be a stunning backdrop for a marquee Cheney speech expected later today.
As the vice chair of the committee, Cheney worked closely with Goldston’s team in presenting the findings in a TV-ready fashion to a national audience. They have worked together to edit hours and hours of recordings that have brought to life the insurrection as it unfolded.
Goldston was not in Wyoming as part of his work as a special adviser to the House committee, CNN has learned, but rather on assignment for his own production company for potential future projects involving Cheney.
But Federal Elections Commission rules say that his help may be a donation in kind:
An in-kind contribution is a non-monetary contribution. Goods or services offered free or at less than the usual charge result in an in-kind contribution. Similarly, when a person or entity pays for services on the committee’s behalf, the payment is an in-kind contribution. An expenditure made by any person or entity in cooperation, consultation or concert with, or at the request or suggestion of, a candidate’s campaign is also considered an in-kind contribution to the candidate.
The value of an in-kind contribution—the usual and normal charge—counts against the contribution limit as a gift of money does. Additionally, like any other contribution, in-kind contributions count against the contributor’s limit for the next election, unless they are otherwise designated.
Cheney talked about how she won her last election by a 73-point margin and how “I could easily have done the same again.”
“The path was clear. But it would have required that I go along with President Trump’s lie about the 2020 election. It would have required that I enable his ongoing efforts to unravel our democratic system and attack the foundations of our republic,” she said.
“That was a path I could not and would not take,” she said.
What a hero. But she believes she is even more heroic than that as she compared herself to Abraham Lincoln.
“The great and original champion of our party, Abraham Lincoln, was defeated in elections for the Senate and the House before he won the most important election of all,” she said to her supporters in Jackson, Wyoming. “Lincoln ultimately prevailed, he saved our union, and he defined our obligation as Americans for all of history.”
“Speaking at Gettysburg of the great task remaining before us, Lincoln said, ‘We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from this earth.’ As we meet here tonight, that remains our greatest and most important task,” she said.
But she was not done. She gave some insight into her future plans and to no one’s surprise, they involve her obsession with Trump.
“Freedom must not, cannot, and will not die here,” she said. “We must be very clear-eyed about the threat we face, and about what is required to defeat it. I have said since January 6th, that I will do whatever it takes to ensure Donald Trump is never again anywhere near the Oval Office, and I mean it.”
She gave even more insight when she spoke to NBC News on Wednesday. She was asked point blank if she intended to campaign for president.
“That’s a decision I’m going to make in the coming months,” she said. “It is something I’m thinking about and I’ll make a decision in the coming months.”
The reaction to Cheney’s defeat was swift and led by former President Trump.
“Congratulations to Harriet Hageman on her great and very decisive WIN in Wyoming. This is a wonderful result for America and a complete rebuke of the Unselect Committee of political Hacks and Thugs. Liz Cheney should be ashamed of herself, the way she acted, and her spiteful, sanctimonious words and actions towards others. Now she can finally disappear into the depths of political oblivion where I am sure, she will be much happier than she is right now. Thank you WYOMING!” he said on Truth Social.
