Former Rep. Liz Cheney’s political action committee announced Tuesday it plans to run a television ad in New Hampshire warning voters that former President Donald Trump has “proven he is unfit for office” and “proven he is a risk America can never take again.”
The minute-long “Risk” ad from Ms. Cheney’s The Great Task PAC is slated to run ahead of and during Mr. Trump’s CNN town hall-style event Wednesday night in Manchester, New Hampshire.
“Donald Trump is the only president in American history who has refused to guarantee the peaceful transfer of power,” Ms. Cheney says in the ad, which features footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. “He lost the election, and he knew it.”
Ms. Cheney, Wyoming Republican, says Mr. Trump “betrayed millions of Americans” with his insistence the 2020 election was stolen, ignored dozens of court rulings undercutting his claims and “mobilized a mob” to storm the Capitol.
“Then, he watched on television, while the mob attacked law enforcement, invaded the Capitol, and hunted the vice president,” she says over video clips of pro-Trump supporters clashing with Capitol Police officers. “He refused, for three hours, to tell the mob to leave.”
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“There has never been a greater dereliction of duty by any president,” she says.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung dismissed the ad as a desperate attempt to stay relevant by Ms. Cheney, who is the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney.
“Liz Cheney is nothing more than a stone-cold loser who is now trying to grift her way to relevance,” Mr. Cheung said. “Instead of apologizing for gaslighting the American people with outright lies and misinformation that ended her failing career, she has doubled down on her falsehoods because she sadly thinks people will actually pay her any attention.”
Mr. Trump’s CNN town hall is scheduled for 8 p.m. Wednesday at St. Anselm College.
Ms. Cheney has vowed to be a thorn in Mr. Trump’s side since losing her Republican primary race for Wyoming’s at-large seat in a landslide last year to Rep. Harriet Hageman.
Ms. Hageman scored Mr. Trump’s endorsement after supporting his stolen election claims.
The Hageman victory was the culmination of a battle between Ms. Cheney and Mr. Trump that intensified after she voted to impeach him for inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and then refused to back off her criticism despite blowback from fellow House Republicans.
Her anti-Trump stance got her booted from her post as House Republican Conference chairwoman. The Wyoming GOP and the Republican National Committee also censured her for her unrelenting criticism of Mr. Trump.
Ms. Cheney served as a central figure in the special House committee investigating the events of Jan. 6 that blamed Mr. Trump for the attack and cast him in a negative light in a series of high-profile hearings.
After her election loss, Ms. Cheney launched The Great Task political action committee. The name is a nod to President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. She also made appearances lamenting how the “most extreme voices” have taken over the House GOP.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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