Liz Cheney Hasn’t Ruled Out Joining the Presidential Race

This is Totally Normal Quote of the Day, a new feature where we pull a particularly wild statement from the news as a reminder of just how extremely normal everything has become.

“There can be no question that he will unravel the institutions of our democracy.” —Former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, on the possibility of a second Trump presidency

Given that Donald Trump faces 91 felony charges, including several related to attempts to overturn the 2020 election, Liz Cheney’s observation does actually seem like a pretty normal thing to say—but it speaks volumes about our abnormal times.

Cheney appeared on CNN Sunday to discuss the chaos in the House after Jim Jordan’s failed bid for the job. She said she wasn’t surprised things are such a mess, given that former Speaker Kevin McCarthy looked “the other way in the face of the kind of assault on our democracy that we’ve seen from Donald Trump and his allies in the House.”

Those allies—mostly members of the far-right Freedom Caucus—went on to dictate the terms of McCarthy’s short-lived speakership. In exchange for supporting him, they demanded that McCarthy allow any single member to trigger a vote to oust the speaker. And lo and behold, with McCarthy nine months into the job, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz used that very rule to trigger his ouster.

Cheney went on to talk about how concerned she is for U.S. democracy if Trump gets reelected. When asked if she’s ruling out running against Trump for president, she replied: “No, I’m not.”

Cheney was one of only two Republicans to join the House Jan. 6 committee, which investigated and brought to light the former president’s elaborate scheme to overthrow the 2020 election. She was also one of only nine Republicans who voted to impeach Trump.

If Cheney enters the fray, she will be joining 10 Republicans vying for the GOP nomination, three Democrats gunning for the Democratic nomination, and two independents. But hey, the more the merrier, right?