Cheney vows to continue fight against 'Trump cult of personality'

WASHINGTON - Liz Cheney, the third-ranking Republican representative in the US House, hit back Wednesday as calls for her to be removed from party leadership gained momentum, saying she would continue to speak out against former President Donald Trump's "cult of personality" regardless of the political consequences she might face.

In a signed op-ed in The Washington Post, the Wyoming congresswoman indicated she would stand by her critical stance on Trump, urging the Republican Party to "choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution" and back away from the former president's unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

"Trump is seeking to unravel critical elements of our constitutional structure that make democracy work - confidence in the result of elections and the rule of law. No other American president has ever done this," wrote the House Republican Conference chair.

"The Republican Party is at a turning point," wrote Cheney, who was among the 10 Republicans having voted to impeach Trump for inciting the Jan 6 Capitol riot. "In the immediate wake of the violence of Jan 6, almost all of us knew the gravity and the cause of what had just happened - we had witnessed it firsthand... The question before us now is whether we will join Trump's crusade to delegitimize and undo the legal outcome of the 2020 election, with all the consequences that might have."

Cheney said that Republicans "need to stand for genuinely conservative principles, and steer away from the dangerous and anti-democratic Trump cult of personality."

"We must be brave enough to defend the basic principles that underpin and protect our freedom and our democratic process. I am committed to doing that, no matter what the short-term political consequences might be," she wrote in conclusion.

Cheney's article was published at a time when her fellow party members loyal to Trump sought to kick her out of the House Republican leadership, citing her inability to align herself with a coherent message within the party ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, in which Republicans are fighting to regain control of Congress.

Elise Stefanik, congresswoman from New York, has emerged as the most likely replacement for Cheney, gaining endorsement from not only top Republicans in the House, but also Trump.