If Donald Trump becomes the nominee of the Republican Party in the 2024 election, "the party will shatter," Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said Sunday on "Meet the Press."
Driving the news: "The party has either to come back from where we are right now, which is a very dangerous and toxic place, or the party will splinter and there will be a new conservative party that rises," Cheney added.
Cheney, who co-chairs the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, said the committee will not allow former President Trump to turn his testimony to the panel into a “circus.”
- "This isn't going to be his first debate against Joe Biden. [...] This is a far too serious set of issues," she said.
- "We are going to proceed in terms of the questioning of the former president under oath. [...] It may take multiple days, and it will be done with a level of rigor and discipline and seriousness that it deserves.”
The big picture: Cheney, whose outward criticism of the former president has made her a pariah in the Republican Party, has signaled a possible presidential run in 2024, although she dodged a question about the possibility of running herself in the upcoming election.
- "I am focused on what we gotta do to save the country from this dangerous moment we are in," she said. "Not right now on whether I would be a candidate or not."
Pressed to comment on the possibility of Donald Trump running for president in 2024, Cheney said: "We will do whatever it takes. He will not be president again."
Go deeper: Cheney says Jan. 6 probe probably her "most important" work ever