Cheney's next mission: Keeping her anti-Trump megaphone

When the Justice Department searched Donald Trump’s home, signaling a possible escalation of investigative work that’s drawing closer to the former president, it also created a complication for Liz Cheney. For a year now, Cheney has wielded an unrivaled megaphone as the GOP’s voice of Trump opposition, using her role on the Jan. 6 select committee to keep political pressure on her nemesis. But the side-by-side federal probe is now a live feed of anti-Trump counter-programming, one the Wyoming Republican welcomes yet must share the spotlight with as she and the rest of the select panel keep designing future presentations that portray the former president as a threat to American democracy.

“We’ve always felt that we have parallel but separate missions, and the committee is going to continue to do the committee’s work,” Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), a select panel colleague of Cheney’s, said about the DOJ investigation. “For me, none of this is political.” Yet for Cheney, the political consequences will be evident on Tuesday. She is likely to lose her House seat to pro-Trump Harriet Hageman in the GOP primary, according to most public polls, despite an active effort to corral support from Wyoming Democrats who have welcomed her work on the Jan. 6 panel. That loss is likely to only heighten the importance of Cheney’s role in the Capitol attack investigation in terms of keeping her name in the mix ahead of a 2024 presidential field that she has not ruled out trying to join — if she can find a lane as a Trump spoiler without helping him by serving as a foil. And some fellow Republicans predict she’ll have no trouble commanding attention, even if she loses her House seat, thanks in large part to her select committee platform.