Liz Cheney urges Republicans to vote for Kamala Harris, argues not voting would help Donald Trump

WASHINGTON – Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said Sunday that if dissident Republicans want to defeat former President Donald Trump this fall, they should actually cast votes for Vice President Kamala Harris rather than writing in other names or not voting at all.

With the race a virtual dead heat, not voting or writing in other Republicans' names could help Trump prevail in tight battleground states, Cheney said on ABC's "This Week."

"Given the closeness of this election, particularly if you're going to find yourself voting in a swing state, you've got to take the extra step," said the former Wyoming congresswoman, who noted she has never before voted for any Democrat.

Two days before Harris and Trump take the debate stage, Cheney called the former president an unprecedented danger to democracy.

"The Republicans have nominated somebody who - who, you know - is depraved," Cheney said at one point.

A number of prominent Republicans, including Trump's own Vice President Mike Pence and 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney, have said they will not support Trump this time around. They have suggested they may vote for Harris, not vote at all, or write in another person's name.

Among the anti-Trump Republicans: Cheney's father, former Vice President Dick Cheney.

One of the most conservative public officials of the past 50 years, a man once reviled by Democrats as "Darth Vader," Dick Cheney said Friday that "there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump."

Announcing he planned to vote for Harris, Dick Cheney said Trump "tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him ... As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution."

Trump and allies have denounced both Cheneys as "Republicans In Name Only" and tools of a failed GOP establishment that has ignored working class voters.

"Dick Cheney is an irrelevant RINO, along with his daughter," Trump said Friday on his Truth Social website.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee, a former press secretary for Trump who also appeared Sunday on ABC's "This Week," said Cheney is a "non-factor" and that most Republicans do indeed support Trump.

"I’m not trying to be rude, but you don't get to call yourself a conservative or Republican when you support the most radical nominee that the Democrats have ever put up," Sanders said.

In her ABC interview, Cheney said she also opposes Trump because he is "not a conservative." She cited his many threats to prosecute political opponents and his proposals for tariffs that would wreck global trade.

Cheney said she cast her first vote for President Ronald Reagan in 1984, and she compared Trump unfavorably that conservative icon. "There is absolutely no chance that Ronald Reagan would be supporting Donald Trump," she said.

Asked in she was still a Republican, Cheney demurred. She did say she wants to help rebuild the Republican Party.

"I’m certainly not a Trump Republican," Cheney said. "I am a conservative."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Liz Cheney urges Republicans to vote Kamala Harris, not Donald Trump