(Washington) Just hours after the speech in which a serious and offensive Joe Biden marked the anniversary of the Capitol invasion, another scene was already shaking American political circles.
To commemorate the assault on Congress, a minute’s silence was called in the Chamber of Representatives’ hemicycle. On the left, Democrats by the dozen condemn the attack led by supporters of Donald Trump. To the right, in the middle of the rows of deserted armchairs, only two Republicans. Dick Cheney, the former vice-president of Bush, is there, his hand on his heart.
Bush, Cheney, Powell
We ask this neoconservative, not really known for his proximity to the opposing camp, why all the other Republicans snubbed the commemorations of January 6, an assault almost unanimously denounced at the time.
He sighs, “This is not the kind of leadership I experienced when I was here for ten years. ”
The political class ignites. Him, one of the driving forces behind the American invasion of Iraq, critic of the Republican Party?
The octogenarian with round glasses, camped in 2018 in the film Vice, becomes for a very brief moment an ally among the Democrats.
From a political point of view, “what Dick Cheney did is remarkable,” Allan Lichtman, professor at American University in Washington, told AFP.
Donald Trump’s stranglehold on Republicans has pulled the party so far to the right, says the expert, that it allowed these Republicans, who had thrown the United States into endless wars, to be rehabilitated.
George W. Bush, strongly criticized for “his war on terrorism”, reinvents himself as a defender of immigration; Colin Powell, the man who assured the UN that he had proof of chemical weapons in Iraq, hailed as a brilliant military officer after his death …
By criticizing Trump, these men have revived their image. But if old political wolves now retired dare to break with the silence of the “Grand Old Party”, warns the professor, it is because deep down they are not risking much.
For the story
The one who has much more to lose? The other Republican present at the minute of silence this Thursday, January 6, 2022: Liz Cheney, elected from Wyoming and also daughter of Dick.
This heir to a traditionalist right, a time anti-marriage for all despite a lesbian sister, has also become a spokesperson for the few anti-Trump Republicans.
After voting for the impeachment which the ex-president ultimately escaped, Liz Cheney became one of two elected Republicans to have agreed to participate in the parliamentary commission of inquiry which seeks to shed light on the responsibilities in the assault on the Capitol.
“She is putting her own political career at risk,” says Allan Lichtman. “She will be remembered as a strong voice, in principle, but almost lonely within the Republican Party. ”
In fact, Liz Cheney has become Donald Trump’s pet peeve, one of his biggest Republican enemies in the US Congress.
The former president does not spare the blows. The businessman multiplies the harsh press releases against this “disloyal and hawkish” woman and announced in September to support his rival in a Republican primary to prevent her from being re-elected.
This poll in Wyoming promises to be one of the most closely watched of the midterm elections.