Liz Cheney issues dire warning about ‘fundamentally cruel’ Trump, agrees he’s a ‘fascist’

Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney on Sunday issued a series of dire warnings about a potential future Trump administration, telling NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that people ought to “carefully” consider what another Trump presidency would look like.

“Donald Trump believes he will be immune for anything he does once he’s in office,” Cheney, a fierce Trump critic, told moderator Kristen Welker.

The former Wyoming congresswoman, who has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris and has campaigned with her, pointed to the Supreme Court’s ruling in July that the former president is immune from criminal prosecution for certain official actions he took while in office as a cause for concern.

“Donald Trump believes he will be immune for anything he does once he’s in office,” she said. “He will not respect the rulings of our courts, and people have to realize our courts can’t enforce their own rulings. So if a president refuses to carry out his obligation to do so, then we are no longer a nation of laws.”

“The people that stopped him from his worst desires last time around won’t serve again,” she added.

Cheney also declined to disagree with remarks from retired Gen. Mark Milley, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump and President Joe Biden, calling Trump “a fascist to the core” in a forthcoming book by Bob Woodward.

“I have tremendous respect for for Gen. Milley, and I see no reason to disagree with that assessment,” Cheney said.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.

Cheney said Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, when his supporters rioted at the U.S. Capitol for hours while the then-president watched without condemning them, were “fundamentally cruel,” drawing a comparison to Trump’s repeated false statements that the federal government under Biden is preventing aid from going to hurricane-stricken areas. Cheney was vice chair of the House committee that investigated the attack on the Capitol.

“Think about the fact our fellow citizens are in dire straits, they’re in dire needs, people’s lives are at risk, and he’s lying to them for his own political gain about where they can get relief,” Cheney said. “That kind of cruelty makes somebody unfit.”

The former congresswoman also warned that another Trump administration would bring an “erratic and a chaotic” foreign policy agenda because she said “Donald Trump is embracing tyrants. Donald Trump loves tyrants. He idolizes them.”

“JD Vance and Donald Trump both support a very isolationist foreign policy and an erratic and a chaotic foreign policy,” Cheney said, referring to the Republican senator from Ohio, who is the former president’s running mate. Cheney cited an internationalist foreign policy, including strong support for Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia, as an area where she agrees with Harris.

Cheney was also asked to address her previous comments blasting Harris and Biden. In 2020, she told Fox News that Harris was a “radical liberal” and that “her policies are simply, completely inconsistent with what most Americans believe in and stand for.”

On Sunday, the former congresswoman said her previous comments “reflect absolutely that we had a policy disagreement on a series of issues,” but added, “that’s why it’s so important for people to focus on the fact that I am supporting her now, and that there’s such a broad coalition that’s coming together to support her.”

“It’s based in part on who she is, on the fact that she will lead with a sincere heart, on the fact that she is somebody who’s dedicated her life to public service, and looking at what Donald Trump poses, the kind of of chaotic, absolute depravity that he would bring if he were ever to be elected again,” Cheney added.

The former congresswoman also criticized House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who appeared on the program before her, for saying there was a peaceful transfer of power to Biden after Trump lost in 2020.

“We have the peaceful transfer of power,” Johnson told Welker when asked whether he was committed to certifying the results of the upcoming election, regardless of who wins.

“We did in 2020. We will in 2024. Everybody can sigh and take a deep breath that our system is going to work,” Johnson added.

Cheney disputed Johnson’s claim, pointing to the Jan. 6 riot as evidence that the transfer of power was not peaceful.

Johnson “has a record repeatedly of doing things that he knows to be wrong, that he knows to be unconstitutional, in order to placate Donald Trump,” Cheney said, citing Johnson’s role in the efforts to overturn the 2020 election. “And frankly, you saw that sycophancy just now on display. So I think that it is very concerning. I do think that Donald Trump has consistently said again and again and again, you know, in the last few months, that this election is going to be rigged, and that if he loses, that’s why. So I think it’s very important that that the Republicans not be in the majority in the House come January 2025.”

Alexandra Marquez

Alexandra Marquez is a politics reporter for NBC News.