Cheney Launches New Anti-Trump TV Ad Amid Speculation About Presidential Run

By Jacob Gardenswartz

Special to the Wyoming Truth

Former Wyoming Congresswoman Rep. Liz Cheney launched her first television ad of the 2024 cycle on Tuesday, highlighting the “risk” that former President Donald Trump poses as he seeks another term in office.

Cheney never appears on-screen in the ad, funded by her political action committee Great Task PAC, though she narrates the entirety of the 60-second spot. “Donald Trump is the only president in American history who has refused to guarantee the peaceful transfer of power,” Cheney begins.

Over images of Trump interspersed with video of pro-Trump rioters during the Jan. 6 insurrection, Cheney says Trump “mobilized a mob to come to Washington and march on the Capitol. Then, he watched on television while the mob attacked law enforcement, invaded the Capitol and hunted the Vice President.”

“Donald Trump has proven he is unfit for office,” she concludes, arguing he is “a risk America can never take again.”

The new ad is airing throughout New Hampshire, the first GOP primary state, just in time for Trump’s Wednesday town hall at Saint Anselm College outside Manchester, set to be broadcast on CNN.

“They made me a deal I couldn’t refuse!!!” Trump said of his upcoming appearance in a Tuesday post on Truth Social, his social media platform. “Could be the beginning of a New & Vibrant CNN, with no more Fake News, or it could turn into a disaster for all, including me. Let’s see what happens?”

Meanwhile, Cheney’s ad furthers speculation about whether she intends to run for president herself in 2024, something she’s yet to rule out officially. Once the number three Republican in the House, her transformation into anti-Trump champion after Jan. 6 precipitated her ouster from GOP leadership and from elected office itself.

Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.), who defeated Cheney in a Republican primary race last year with Trump’s backing, has remained in lockstep with the former president, becoming one of the first sitting lawmakers to endorse his 2024 bid. In a lengthy Tuesday post, she lashed out at Cheney’s new spot.

“There is one person who Republican voters wish would go away, and it’s not Donald Trump. It’s Liz Cheney,” Hageman wrote. “In Wyoming, we rejected the idea that a woman from Virginia could tell us what we should think, and the voters of New Hampshire will do that too.”

Such critiques echo similar attacks against Cheney’s Virginia roots that Hageman made in an interview with the Wyoming Truth last month, claiming Cheney “in reality [has] very little ties to Wyoming.”

Hageman in her Tuesday post also opined on Cheney’s fundraising prowess; the former representative raised nearly $3 million last cycle, predominantly from donors out-of-state. “She’s taking the donations she’s gotten from Democrats and throwing them away on ineffective TV ads to settle a personal score,” Hageman claimed. “She might as well be setting the money on fire, because it won’t work, just like all her other attempts to silence President Trump.”

But while Hageman may be sticking beside Trump, Wyoming’s other representatives in Washington have started distancing themselves. Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), who previously described Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as the “current leader of the Republican Party,” doubled down on those sentiments in an interview last week.

“Clearly, President Trump is leading the pack for the presidential nomination at this point,” Lummis said. “But DeSantis — his style, and the issues he chooses to emphasize — are very much in keeping with what the public is talking about. That’s why I think he’s the leader of the party.”

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), for his part, has said only that he intends to support the GOP nominee. Neither senator would comment on Cheney’s new ad.

Though the GOP primary contest won’t begin in earnest until next February, Trump has continued to cement his lead among Republican voters. A Washington Post-ABC News poll released Sunday found Trump leading DeSantis by 28 points, 53-25, with former Vice President Mike Pence, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and others trailing.

The same poll found both Trump and DeSantis besting President Joe Biden in a head-to-head race.