Foreign Correspondent: Aug 11

On Thursday Foreign Correspondent turns its attention to US politics with battle lines drawn in Wyoming over Republican Party prospects.

Wyoming is the most pro-Trump state in the country. And respected Republican Liz Cheney is about to find out what that means.

“The people of Wyoming are going to tell Liz Cheney ‘You’re fired, get the hell out of here, get out of here’”, says the former president.

Ms Cheney, who represents Wyoming in Congress, is the embodiment of the Republican establishment. The daughter of the former US Vice President Dick Cheney, she rose to be the highest-ranking Republican woman in Congress and is famously conservative.

Despite consistently backing Trump in office, she’s now one of his staunchest critics, attacking him for refusing to concede defeat in the 2020 election, and for his actions on January 6.

“I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible. There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone but your dishonour will remain.”

As she seeks her party’s nomination for a 4th term in Congress, Donald Trump is going all out to stop her, endorsing and campaigning for another candidate, who’s also switched sides.

Harriet Hageman was a “Never Trumper” who tried to stop his run for the presidency in 2016. Now she enjoys his support and campaigns on his record. And the polls show its working.

Cheney’s stance on Trump has divided Republicans in Wyoming, angering many, leading to death threats.

“It’s a battle between the Trump Republican Party and the Republican Party of the past”, says Mary Kay Turner, a Cheney family friend. “It’s dividing the community terribly.”

Former Washington bureau chief Kathryn Diss travels through the vast and spectacular wilderness of the Cowboy State to talk with locals about the upcoming primary elections.

Many feel Cheney’s role in the January 6 hearings has distracted her from local issues.

“She’s been focused completely on the January 6 commission when people here are worried about the price of food at the grocery store, the price of gas at the gas pump”, says local state politician Cheri Steinmetz.

“Most of her time is being spent trying to convict Donald Trump.”

But loyalists support her principled stand.

“I would be so sorry to see someone like Liz Cheney lose because it’s more than Liz Cheney that loses. We lose a lot of Republicans like her…that care a great deal for our country,” says Mary Kay Turner.

Diss also heads to Washington to speak with leading Democrat congressman Jamie Raskin who’s sitting alongside Liz Cheney on the January 6 Committee.

He says the stakes for the US couldn’t be higher.

“I want to make sure that American democracy survives and that proposition is at odds with Donald Trump ever getting anywhere near the White House.”