- Liz Cheney told ABC News on Sunday that the GOP "can't survive" if Trump is its standard bearer in 2024.
- "I think that he can't be the party nominee and I don't think the party would survive that," she said.
- Cheney has been a vocal critic of Trump's repeated claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Rep. Liz Cheney, during an interview that aired on Sunday, said that the Republican Party won't be able to survive if former President Donald Trump captures the GOP nomination in 2024 and once again serves as its official standard-bearer.
During a conversation on ABC's "This Week," the Wyoming Republican told chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl that the party would be in dire straits if Trump were to head the top of the ticket in 2024 — a sentiment she has articulated in the past, arguing that the former president's conduct during the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, disqualified him for seeking office again.
"It can't survive if he's our nominee," she said. "I think that he can't be the party nominee and I don't think the party would survive that."
She continued, "I believe in the party and I believe in what the party can be and what the party can stand for and I'm not ready to give that up. Those of us who believe in Republican principles and ideals have a responsibility to try to lead the party back to what it can be and to reject so much of the toxin and the vitriol."
The congresswoman said that Trump has "betrayed" GOP voters by continuing to repeat debunked claims that he won the 2020 election over now-President Joe Biden.
"That is a really painful thing for people to recognize and to admit, but it's absolutely the case, and they've been betrayed by him, by the Big Lie," she said. "And by what he continues to do and say to tear apart our country and tear apart our party, and I think we have to reject that."
Cheney was first elected to the House in 2016, which coincided with Trump's presidential victory over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and she quickly rose up the leadership ladder by becoming the House Republican Conference Chair in 2019.
But she broke away from Trump after January 6, rejecting his allegations of a stolen election and voting to impeach him for "incitement of insurrection" for his actions on that day.
Her vocal stance against Trump led her GOP colleagues to remove her from House leadership, but she was undeterred in her resolve against the former president.
"I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office," she told reporters on Capitol Hill in May 2021 shortly after being ousted from the No. 3 House GOP position.
Last September, she gained another prominent congressional role as the vice chair of the January 6 committee investigating the Capitol riot; the panel's work has led to a series of ongoing hearings that have brought riveting testimony about the events of that day to the public.
In August, Cheney will face several candidates in a GOP primary, with her most notable opponent being Trump-backed water rights attorney Harriet Hageman.