The United States Congresswoman Liz Cheney has announced her intention to run for president in 2024.
Cheney, a Republican and the daughter of former George W. Bush-era Vice President Dick Cheney, announced her plans after losing the Wyoming primary before the November midterms to a supporter of former President Donald Trump.
She will remain out of the House of Representatives after the vote this fall, but she said her candidacy would be an opportunity to prevent Trump from returning to the White House.
However, according to American media, Cheney, once considered a rising star in the party, was punished by voters in Wyoming precisely because of the vote in support of Trump’s impeachment: in the United States, investigations are still ongoing as to what exactly his role was in the events of January 6, 2021, when a mob of his supporters stormed the US Congress.
Asked on NBC if she would like to run, she confirmed, a night after explaining that she would do “everything possible” to keep Donald Trump out of the White House.
The November election is important because it will determine who controls Congress, governorships, and state legislatures. They are also relevant to Trump himself – and therefore to the vote in 2024; the billionaire, who lost the vote last year and has repeatedly announced his intention to run, endorsed specific candidates before the election, and they are doing well so far.
In the Republican Party, support for Trump remains significant. According to Cheney, however, the party is in dire straits because it has embraced his “cult of personality.” What’s more, after winning the 2020 primary by a landslide, she believes she would not have lost now if she had repeated Trump’s claims that the election was rigged. According to her, it is dangerous to elect people who question the results of the vote.
Trump will not form a new party and again complained that his victory was stolen
Donald Trump said in a speech to a major conservative conference that he would not start a new party, hinted at a 2024 run, and continued to say that he had won the election last November, without any evidence.
Trump has attacked prominent Republicans, saying a rift is opening between a handful of people who have taken over the party for personal gain in Washington and the rest of the country. His endorsement is likely to go to in-party opponents in Senators Mitt Romney and Pat Toomey, as well as Congressmen Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. “Get rid of them,” he urged. When he mentioned the name of Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader in the Senate, the crowd started booing and booing. “You won! You won!” the crowd responded, even as Trump supporters lost nearly 80 lawsuits challenging the election process and result at every level from the state to the US Supreme Court.
A trove of classified documents was seized from Trump on suspicion of being under the Espionage Act
FBI agents in this week’s search of the home of former US President Donald Trump in Florida seized 11 sets of classified documents, including some marked as top secret, ie. those that are not only handled by people with special access but are also not taken out of certain premises.
The Justice Department announced on Friday, while also revealing that there was probable cause for the search because of possible violations of the Espionage Act.
The search warrant, approved by a US judge, and accompanying documents were released four days after agents searched the Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach. The Espionage Act, one of three laws cited in the injunction request, dates back to 1917 and makes it a crime to disclose information that could harm national security.
Trump, in a statement on his social media platform, said the documents had been “declassified” and placed in “secure storage.” “They didn’t need to ‘grab’ anything. They could get it whenever they wanted without playing politics and invading Mar-a-Lago,” said the businessman, who remains the Republican Party’s most influential politician.
But he provided no evidence of this, saying he had verbally declared that everything he took to his Florida resort was declassified. There is no formal and written decision by him, which makes his claims difficult to prove or disprove. His lawyers argue that the Constitution does not require him to follow normal procedures in this case, but lawyers say there are at least three reasons to argue that Trump has committed a violation. One of them invokes the First World War-era Espionage Act, and it carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison for any offense in handling documents – whether classified or not – that affect national defense and may harm the United States or aid a foreign adversary.
The search was conducted as part of a federal investigation into whether Trump illegally took documents when he left office in January 2021.
FBI agents seized more than 20 boxes of documents, photo folders, a handwritten note, and a pardon decision for Trump ally and longtime adviser Roger Stone, a list of the seized items shows. Information labeled “About the President of France” is also included in the list.
No details were provided as to why investigators had reason to believe such a violation of the Espionage Act had occurred. The Justice Department has used the law in high-profile cases in recent years, including former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, former military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
FBI agents on Monday collected four sets of top secret documents, three sets of secret documents, and three sets of confidential documents, it was revealed on Friday. Among them are documents marked as “classified/TS/SCI documents”, a reference to top secret and very important material.
Trump has not been charged with any wrongdoing. It remains unclear if charges will be filed.
