Liz Cheney speaks about democracy, election stakes at Heinz Hall

Addressing a packed theater of around 2,500 people in downtown Pittsburgh, Liz Cheney solemnly spoke about the stakes of the 2024 election.

“We cannot sit back and wash our hands of our responsibility to democracy,” Cheney said.

Cheney, a former Republican congresswoman, spoke at Heinz Hall on Wednesday. She is the latest in a series of Kamala Harris allies to make stops in the Steel City. Cheney told stories about her youth and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and spoke about the threat to democracy that she believes former President Donald Trump poses.

Cheney served in the House of Representatives from 2017-2023, becoming the highest-ranked Republican woman in the history of the House. Though Cheney sided with Trump’s policies 92.9% of the time in Congress, the Jan. 6 insurrection caused Cheney to cut ties with Trump and his allies. She has since denounced the former president and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in this year’s election.

“I did not know her [well], and I have attacked her … but there is only one choice in this election,” Cheney said. “We need our president to behave like a real adult.”

Cheney began by telling stories of her youth and early career assisting her father. She recalled when he became George W. Bush’s vice president in the heavily-contested 2000 election and marveled at the way former Vice President Al Gore handled himself after he conceded the election.

“[It’s amazing] that the awesome power of the presidency is transferred peacefully every four to eight years,” Cheney said. “It is the most powerful office in the land, and yet, in every election since Washington, that power has been transferred peacefully. Every president has done this except for Donald Trump.”

She then recounted her experience on Jan. 6 and described what it was like as someone who was inside the Capitol.

“They were trying to tear the law enforcement officers limb from limb,” she said. “If you don’t believe that description, watch the videos of the attack.”

Cheney recalled the aftermath of that day and what she learned as a member of the January 6th Select Committee.

“Donald Trump, knowing that his supporters were armed, sent them to march on the Capitol that day,” Cheney said. “He watched on TV as they stormed the Capitol … One of his aides handed him a note saying that a civilian had been shot inside the Capitol, and he looked up and continued to watch on TV.”

Cheney implored the audience to keep Trump out of office by voting for Kamala Harris in November.

“We cannot afford to sit this one out,” Cheney said. “We have to win on Nov. 5.”

Rodney Gasch, a registered Democrat who attended the talk, said that he respected Cheney’s courage in the face of political pressure in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack.

“I think Liz Cheney is incredibly brave to buck the party that she’s grown up in and stand up for the Constitution in the face of much what must be terrible pressure from her former colleagues in the Republican Party,” Gasch said.

During her speech, Cheney spoke about the need for bipartisanship and compromise. She said even though she and former Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi disagreed on many subjects, they could put their differences aside when necessary.

“I don’t think we should be closed off,” Jan Barber, another audience member, said. “We need to talk to each other. I respect her a lot for the work that she’s done.”

Barber was particularly moved by Cheney’s call to action and what she said about the power of voting this November.

“This election is not about policy anymore,” Barber said. “It really is about protecting democracy or giving it up. And I agree with her that there is a version of Republican and Democrats and independents getting together where we do preserve democracy. If we’re interested in that, we have to be engaged in it. We have to vote. We have to be involved and we have to be informed.”