President Joe Biden heaped praise on Liz Cheney, the Republican vice chair of the January 6 committee, in an interview which aired on Sunday.
Speaking with MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart, the president identified Ms Cheney as one of the so-called “rational Republicans” he has sought to reach common ground with and in fact pledged to do so during his 2020 campaign for office. Others, he argue, remain aligned with Donald Trump’s “Maga” movement and hostile to America’s very rule of law.
“Look, I don’t agree with anything that Liz Cheney believes about the substantive issues, but I admire the hell out of her,” said Mr Biden.
“She means what she says, she doesn’t support the notion of use of violence, she doesn’t support the notion, she insists that there are basic fundamental rules.”
Insisting that “it used to be that way” in the Senate, Mr Biden sounded once again like the 2020 candidate who seemed eager to help the GOP break the stranglehold that Mr Trump seems to continue to have over the party.
It’s a far cry from the strategy his party’s various campaign arms have taken this election cycle — spending money to aid far-right candidates, often believers in 2020 election conspiracies, in Republican primaries around the nation in the hopes of setting up Democrats with easier fights in their respective general elections. Notable examples of such a strategy include efforts to aid gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox in Maryland and US House candidate John Gibbs in Michigan.
Somewhat ironically, Mr Biden declared in the same interview with Mr Capehart that as long as Americans, and in particular his party, takes seriously the “threat” posed by efforts to undermine confidence in US elections that the threat itself would be neutralised.
“I think as long as we take seriously the threat, I don’t think the threat can come to fruition,” he told Mr Capehart.
Mr Biden’s team is reportedly preparing for his 2024 reelection bid as all signs point to the likelihood of Mr Trump making another bid for the presidency as well.
The former president remains under a criminal investigation for illegal retention of presidential records including classified materials, as well as the cloud of the Justice Department’s ongoing probe into January 6.
He also was subpoenaed this week by Ms Cheney’s committee for testimony in Congress’s Jan 6 probe.
