'My fellow Republicans wanted me to lie,' Liz Cheney says in commencement speech

Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney on Sunday called on graduates to engage in politics and urged them not to waver from the truth, invoking her experience battling against former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The former Wyoming congresswoman lambasted her former GOP colleagues during a commencement speech at Colorado College, her alma mater.

“After the 2020 election and the attack of January 6th, my fellow Republicans wanted me to lie. They wanted me to say the 2020 election was stolen, the attack of January 6th wasn’t a big deal, and Donald Trump wasn’t dangerous,” Cheney said. “I had to choose between lying and losing my position in House leadership.”

“No party, no nation, no people can defend and perpetuate a constitutional republic if they accept leaders who have gone to war with the rule of law, with the democratic process, with the peaceful transfer of power, with the Constitution itself,” Cheney added.

The daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, she was a member of House Republican leadership until her continued opposition to Trump's actions — and her vote to impeach him — led her colleagues to oust her from leadership. Cheney was the ranking Republican on the high-profile Jan. 6 committee investigating the riot at the Capitol, a position that in part cost her reelection in 2022.

Since her departure from Congress, Cheney has unabashedly called out the events surrounding Jan. 6 and been unrelenting in her criticism of the former president. Though she called Trump out by name Sunday, Cheney did not say anything of his 2024 campaign. But she did repeatedly attack her own party, and warned of efforts by some political operatives to suppress votes in upcoming elections.

“Cleta Mitchell, a political operative and an election denier, told a gathering of Republicans recently that it’s crucially important that they make sure that college students don’t vote,” Cheney said. “Those who are trying to unravel the foundations of our republic, who are threatening the rule of law and the sanctity of elections know they cannot succeed if you vote. So, Class of 2023, get out and vote.”

Cheney also urged the graduates — particularly the women — to consider running for office.

“This country needs more of you in office. You may have noticed that men are pretty much running things these days, and it’s not really going all that well,” she said. “You can change that.”