Liz Cheney acknowledged the possibility of a presidential run in 2024.J. Scott Applewhite/AP
As the hearings of the January 6 committee get closer and closer to implicating Donald Trump criminally in the violent attack on the US Capitol, the former president is reportedly considering announcing a 2024 presidential bid earlier than he might have. Sources close to Trump told CBS News he has privately shared his intentions to announce his comeback as early as this summer, instead of waiting until after the November midterms. And if he does indeed throw in his hat in the ring for the Republican nomination, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) says she might run against him.
British newspaper The Telegraph reported that the former president could formally announce his run in Florida this month, partially in an attempt to overshadow Gov. Ron DeSantis, a likely 2024 rival. Trump recently used his Truth Social account to share a poll showing him leading in a putative GOP primary, even though other polls have suggested DeSantis might do better with voters.
Trump’s urge to jump in early appears to have been further fueled by his anger toward the January 6 committee hearings. “So the lowlifes Rigged and Stole a Presidential Election, and I’m the one who is on trial,” he wrote on Truth Social. “We are truly a Nation in Decline!” Trump has also lashed out against Cassidy Hutchinson, a former senior aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows whose damning testimony highlighted Trump’s desire to join the violent mob that besieged the Capitol, and his alleged assault on a Secret Service agent who told Trump he couldn’t join the insurrectionists.
During an interview with Newsmax, Trump said the hearings were an attempt to prevent him from running in 2024. “I am leading in all the polls—against Republicans and Democrats,” he said. “I am leading in the Republican polls in numbers that no one has ever even seen before. And against Biden, and anyone else they run, I am leading against them.”
Rep. Cheney, a co-chair of the Jan. 6 committee who was stripped of her Republican leadership position for refusing to go along with most of her colleagues in supporting Trump’s Big Lie, discussed a potential run on ABC News Sunday. The Republican Party “can’t survive” if Trump is the nominee,” she said. But “there’s no question: A man as dangerous as Donald Trump can absolutely never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again.”
Cheney said she hasn’t made any decision just yet, but if she does run, it will be about more than her personal political ambitions: “I think about it less in terms of a decision about running for office, and more in terms of, you know, as an American—and as somebody who’s in a position of public trust now, how do I make sure that I’m doing everything I can to do the right thing; to do what I know is right for the country, and, and to protect our Constitution.”
