The real takeaway from Thursday’s Jan. 6. hearing could be summed up by saying, “Don’t mess with Liz Cheney.”
Cheney, R-Wyo., learned from her dad, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and last night taught a masters class in how Washington really works.
She settled long-running scores with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and got revenge for her father on former President Donald Trump.
For all the talk about American values and rule of law and preserving the Constitution, politics is personal. Take Hawley, for example. The junior senator from Missouri fundraises off the picture of him showing solidarity with the rioters on Jan. 6. His presidential ambitions rest on being a hyper-aggressive promoter of MAGA values and a culture warrior.
He also once said of Cheney, “This is somebody who has no support in her own caucus, who has hung her own members out to dry over and over. … I think she’s on an island.”
And, for no other reason than that she could, Cheney eviscerated him last night during prime time. The committee played video of Hawley sprinting away from the mob. The video proved absolutely nothing. There was no other reason than to embarrass Hawley. The footage will play in an endless loop of attack ads when he decides to run for president.
Lesson? Don’t mess with Liz Cheney.
She ran clip after clip of McCarthy, who hopes to be speaker. McCarthy iced Cheney out of leadership, and she took revenge.
And let’s not forget Cheney is one of only two Republicans on the committee investigating and building a criminal case against Donald Trump. The same Donald Trump who used her father as a political punching bag for years.
As we said — she learned how Washington works from her father.
Of course, to Fox News, President Trump’s inaction on Jan. 6 barely deserved coverage. CNN salivates over every minute of hearings, and then replays and analyzes them for weeks to come.
“On Balance,” of course, takes no position on the hearings themselves — we report what happens and attempt to explain the why of what you are seeing.
