January 6 hearings

Wednesday briefing: What Cheney’s drubbing means for US politicsIn today’s newsletter: Is Liz Cheney’s defeat in the Wyoming primary a triumph for far-right populism – or the beginning of a new chapter?

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Good morning. Like Keir Starmer and Boris Johnson, I’ve had a lovely summer holiday; unlike them, nobody seems to have been that bothered by my absence. With apologies to those who were hoping for more from Nimo, I’m writing to you this morning with news breaking in the US state of Wyoming, where Representative Liz Cheney, one of the few Republicans to hold Donald Trump accountable for the January 6 insurrection, has been handed an absolute drubbing.In the last couple of hours, Cheney conceded defeat in the primary contest for her seat in the US House of Representatives to Trump’s preferred revenge candidate, standing 37 points behind Harriet Hageman with 95% of precincts reporting. Two years ago, Cheney won her primary with 73% of the vote. Hageman will go forward to the midterm elections in November – and with Democrats nowhere in Wyoming, she will be returned as the state’s sole congressional representative.Cheney’s defeat means that Washington DC will lose its most authoritative and best-known Republican critic of Trump – and yet some Democrats are willing to bet that the more extreme their opponents, the better they will do.Today’s newsletter, with the help of David Smith reporting from Wyoming, is about Liz Cheney – and what her result tells us about Trump’s continuing influence over the Republican party and American politics. That’s right after the headlines.Five big stories
Conservatives | An audio recording leaked to the Guardian has revealed that Liz Truss said British workers lacked the “skill and application” of their overseas counterparts and needed “more graft”. Her campaign claimed the recording of Truss – who has accused her critics of “talking Britain down” – “lacked context”.
Farming | UK food tsar Henry Dimbleby has said reducing the consumption of meat and dairy is the only way to sustainably farm in England and avoid ecological breakdown.
Ukraine | Ukraine is engaged in a counteroffensive aimed at creating “chaos within Russian forces” by striking at supply lines deep into occupied territories, a key adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the Guardian.
Inflation | The real value of wages in the UK dropped by 3% in June, the fastest fall in 20 years, as inflation continues to outpace average pay.
Culture | The former Pop Idol contestant and theatre star Darius Campbell Danesh has died at the age of 41. His family said Danesh died at his apartment in Rochester, Minnesota and that the cause of death was as yet unknown.
In depth: What went down in WyomingLiz Cheney is, by almost any measure, as conservative as they come. She opposes abortion rights, denies that human activity is responsible for the climate crisis and supports tax cuts for the wealthy. When Trump was president, she voted with him 93% of the time.All of which would appear to make her a solid match for Wyoming, which last elected a Democrat to her congressional seat in 1976. But Cheney differed from what now counts as the GOP mainstream on one crucial subject: the result of the 2020 presidential election, and in particular Donald Trump’s responsibility for the events that followed on January 6.She went on to be vice-chair and the most prominent voice of the House January 6 select committee, and, in the face of credible and numerous death threats, become an unlikely hero for Democrats nostalgic for a bygone age of (some) principled, bipartisan politics. But close to 70% of Wyoming voters went for Trump in 2020, and 70% of Republicans across the US believe his false claim that the election was stolen. As a direct result, Cheney will be out of a job on 3 January next year.“There wasn’t much of a note of sadness or disappointment in her concession speech,” said David Smith, speaking shortly after attending Cheney’s campaign event in Jackson, Wyoming. “She knew this was coming.” Even so, “it’s worth remembering how unthinkable this would have been a couple of years ago. It’s another symbolic indicator of how Trump has transformed his party.”What happened last night?The margin against Cheney, even bigger than polls had suggested, represents an “absolutely crushing victory for Trump,” David said. “There’s no two ways about it. We’ve talked about what these primaries show us about Trump’s influence all year, but Wyoming was always the most watched.”For a sense of how deeply Cheney is opposed in her state, see David’s dispatch published on Saturday, and this line from one critic: “​​She’s going to ‘educate’ us in the constitution and how ‘we’re wrong and she’s right.’ Well … She’s gonna find out if she educated us or not.”While Trump’s false claims about the election and his role in the January 6 riot were clearly a crucial factor here, David also notes that Cheney’s opponents sought to argue that she was “interested in Washington over Wyoming, and had forgotten her constituents. And to some extent she leaned into that – she wasn’t discussing Wyoming policy at her concession speech, she was talking about the big national picture.”How does the result in Wyoming fit into the wider story?One measure of the big picture for Republican critics of Trump, and of his enduring influence, might be an analysis of the fates of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump over the Capitol riot. Of those 10, four including Cheney have lost their primaries, four have retired and just two have survived.As David wrote last week, Cheney’s result can be seen as “a final national pivot away from the Bush-era establishment to the Make America Great Again movement – from old school conservatism to far-right populism.” Symbolically enough, David pointed out, Cheney’s father Dick, “Darth Vader of the Bush era himself,” was present last night “to see his daughter crushed by the MAGA movement. If you were looking for symbols, that’s pretty on-the-nose.”Trump hasn’t had it all his own way in 2022, David added, and the different outcomes are indicative of the contrasting political landscapes in deep red states like Wyoming and other more balanced races. “In Georgia, for example, the candidates he endorsed flopped,” he said. “But he’s had a surge in congressional primaries recently. After some speculation that his grip is weakening, he’s reasserted himself.”Where does that leave Democrats?Grim as the depth of Republicans’ commitment to Trumpism is for American democracy, it isn’t necessarily the worst news for Joe Biden – or, at least, that’s what Democrats appear to think. One notable feature of this primary season (in races more likely to be competitive in November than Wyoming) has been Democratic funding of ads designed to elevate the chances of the most extreme Republican candidates, in the hope of ensuring unelectable opponents.The jury’s out on whether that’s a good idea. In a piece on that strategy last week, Lauren Gambino quoted Richard Hasen, director of the Safeguarding Democracy project, who said that at a moment when the stolen election myth is such a potent force in American politics, the Democrats’ approach is “immoral and dangerous”.While Biden has endured dismal poll ratings, the picture has gotten a little better in recent weeks, with many on his own side appearing newly motivated by the supreme court’s ruling to overturn Roe v Wade and the unexpected passage of a $739bn healthcare and climate bill.That has changed the political weather: polling analysis site FiveThirtyEight still expects Republicans to win the House, but it now views Democrats as slight favourites to keep control of the Senate. (One reason why, as Adam Gabbatt lays out here, is the calibre of some of the celebrity candidates the GOP has chosen.)Even if this helps in November, though, Cheney’s result and the Democratic strategy still point to the looming threat in 2024: a national election where Republican positions are defined by their most extreme anti-democratic voices – with Trump himself at the top of the ticket.What will Cheney do next?Cheney appeared to have accepted the inevitably of her defeat some time ago. An ad featuring her father excoriating Trump appeared more likely to appeal to a national audience than the party faithful at home. She has stayed in Washington when she might have been expected to be campaigning on the ground in Wyoming. And she has held back much of her considerable war chest.Cheney will keep her role on the January 6 committee for the rest of the year. Many suspect that one reason she kept some money back is a larger ambition in the future: a run at the presidency. In her concession speech, she dropped a clear hint about that prospect, saying: “Abraham Lincoln was defeated in elections for the Senate and House before he won the most important election of all.”Most analysts believe that she would be a long-shot candidate – and, as this Washington Post piece reports, she is herself “clear-eyed” about her prospects. Instead, she may see her possible role as a spoiler for Trump should he run again.But as David also noted: “The Cheneys always play a very long game. Her father was chief of staff to Gerald Ford decades before he was vice president. I assume Liz Cheney will view this as one setback in a very long story.”What else we’ve been reading
Oliver Wainwright spoke to the architects who believe that “demolition is an act of violence” and are breathing new life into old buildings instead. Nimo
Ballon d’Or winners Ada Hegerberg and Megan Rapinoe’s conversation about the state of women’s football is full of insight on how to capitalise on England’s success in the Euros – and features this bracing quote from Rapinoe: “Welcome, everybody, to the party. You’re extremely fucking late, but fine.” Archie
In the last two years, the number of Asian Americans buying guns for the first time has risen by 43% – Claire Wang explains why. Nimo
Comedian Nish Kumar writes about why, despite rising costs for performers and fewer younger acts, the Edinburgh fringe festival is still an invaluable place for artists to hone their craft. Nimo
As a walking liberal cliche, I spent a good chunk of my holiday dutifully catching up on the New Yorker. Easily my favourite piece was this hilarious, fascinating story by Tad Friend about a door-to-door salesman blessed with low cunning – and cursed with a bit of a conscience. Archie
SportTennis | Emma Raducanu defeated Serena Williams 6-4, 6-0 in a first round match at a tournment in Cincinnati. Williams’ defeat to the British No 1, 21 years her junior, is likely her penultimate tournament appearance.Athletics | Daryll Neita won bronze for the UK in the European women’s 100m as Dina Asher-Smith pulled up with cramp. Germany’s Gina Luckenkemper won gold in the race. Zharnel Hughes took silver and Jeremiah Azu bronze behind the Italian Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs in the men’s 100m.Football | Rangers were forced to settle for a 2-2 draw in their Champions League playoff first leg against PSV Eindhoven after an Armando Obispo equaliser in the 78th minute. Rangers last reached the Champions League group stage 12 years ago.The front pagesThe Guardian leads with “Truss condemns British workers for lack of ‘graft’” while the Express has “Truss fury over EUs Brexit betrayal”. The Times goes with “Sunak turns on rival over ‘moral’ duty to ease bills”.The Telegraph’s splash reads “Modern slavery law is the ‘biggest loophole’ for migrants” and the FT says “Record fall in wages signals more cost of living pain for households”.The i newspaper has “Omicron jab: Blair calls for every adult to get a booster,” while the Mail leads with “Cyclists may need number plates”.Ryan Giggs, on trial over alleged assault, makes the Mirror’s front page with the headline: “I’m a love cheat, I can’t resist”. The Sun has “Pop idol Darius dead”.Today in FocusUnderstanding the violent attack on Salman RushdieColumnist Nesrine Malik on the history of the fatwa against the author Salman Rushdie and power of his workCartoon of the day | Steve BellThe UpsideA bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all badIn 2001, a band called Panchiko played a festival in the Nottinghamshire town of Sutton-in-Ashfield. It was a flop: the crowd wasn’t enthused, and the band disbanded soon after, drifting apart from one another. That was until 2016, when their album turned up in a charity shop. The person who bought the CD made it their mission to find out who was behind the album. Thus began Panchiko’s journey into the cultural zeitgeist. For years, internet sleuths looked for Panchiko – and eventually found them. The former bandmates were shocked that, after all these years, they had, without their knowledge, acquired a dedicated fanbase. Now in their 40s, the band have come together for a US tour that is already partly sold out.Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every SundayBored at work?And finally, the Guardian’s crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until tomorrow.
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Liz Cheney fights for her House seat as Trumpists vow to ‘send her packing’Her leadership role on the January 6 panel makes her a martyr for democracy to some – and an apostate to others Darin Smith says he remembers January 6 very differently from Liz Cheney and her congressional colleagues investigating the US Capitol riot.“People were singing patriotic songs, the national anthem, hymns,” insists Smith, who was outside the Capitol that day to protest about Donald Trump’s election defeat. “There was a group of grey-haired ladies – the average age had to have been mid-70s – that were praying.”Nineteen months later, Smith is sitting in a cafe in his home city of Cheyenne in the western state of Wyoming. He condemns the violence that took place inside the Capitol but, despite a mountain of evidence, scoffs at the idea that Trump was responsible. And he is adamant that Cheney, his representative in Congress, should pay a price for her anti-Trump crusade.The three-term congresswoman may lose her seat in Tuesday’s Republican primary election in Wyoming, the most watched congressional primary of the year. Opinion polls show Cheney trailing Harriet Hageman, conservative lawyer and vehicle of Trump’s vengeance, and defeat for the clarion voice of the January 6 panel will, in many eyes, make her a martyr for American democracy.It will also signal a tectonic shift in Wyoming, the least populated state in America and one of the most devoutly Republican. Its most consequential political figure is Dick Cheney, vice-president under George W Bush and father of Liz. Last week, in cowboy hat, fleece and gruff tones, he recorded a campaign video for her, excoriating Trump as a “coward” and saying there has never been anyone who is a “greater threat to our republic”.Victory for Hageman would therefore be widely interpreted as a repudiation of Wyoming’s most venerable political dynasty, evidence that the state Republican party no longer belongs to the Cheneys but to Trump. That would reflect a final national pivot away from the Bush era establishment to the “Make America Great Again” movement – from old school conservatism to far-right populism.Smith, wearing a blue T-shirt that said “1776 Forever Free”, grey shorts and black flip-flops, is in no doubt which camp he belongs to. Last year he was a candidate in the Republican primary for Cheney’s House seat, raised $400,000 and made a pilgrimage to Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, to seek the former president’s all-important endorsement.“It was like speed dating, my wife said,” the 48-year-old lawyer recalls. “I said, ‘I have a poll right here, sir, that shows that I could win today. Actually the polling that we took says that I could beat anybody in the state except for you, sir.’ He said, ‘Let me see that poll!’”The pitch was unsuccessful and Trump gave Hageman the nod instead; Smith abandoned his campaign within a day and insists that he is not bitter. He is “100% behind Harriet Hageman” and shares her doubts – repeatedly debunked – about the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election. “Liz Cheney, in our minds, betrayed the constitution, betrayed the nation, and we’re going to send her packing.”Smith argues that Cheney – one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting an insurrection – is bitter about Trump’s criticism of her father as the mastermind of a neoconservatism that led to the torturing of suspects, opening of a prison at Guantánamo Bay and waging of an illegal war on Iraq.“It was a vendetta. She’s mad at Trump because Trump pointed out the truth of the Cheney foreign policy. Her dad is responsible for millions of deaths worldwide and trillions of dollars in spending from the US government. She’s pissed about it and she’s a narcissist and she saw her opportunity to go for Trump’s throat and she did.“But it’s bigger than that. She wants to be the first woman president. We all know that. We’re not stupid. She’s going to ‘educate’ us in the constitution and how ‘we’re wrong and she’s right.’ Well, she’s got news and she’s got something coming for her on Tuesday of next week. She’s gonna find out if she educated us or not.”The accusation that Cheney, 56, is driven by personal ambition in Washington, rather than by the needs of her constituents in Wyoming, is common among her critics here.They complain that she has devoted more time to the televised hearings of the January 6 committee, where she serves as vice-chair, than to retail politics in her home state. Her campaign ads emphasise her role on the national stage as a defender of the constitution.James King, a political science professor at the University of Wyoming, said Cheney’s opponent has seized on the theme that “she is too much Washington and not enough Wyoming”.He added: “Certainly her participation in the committee and its public hearings have done nothing to change that view; if anything, it would be reinforcing it. It’s not just a support or not support Trump; it’s also, they will argue, too much the national and not enough the state: ‘She’s not of Wyoming any longer.’ It’s easy to say this is about Donald Trump but from the state angle it’s: ‘You’re not paying attention to us.’”Indeed, Cheney has raised more than $13m largely thanks to donations from outside Wyoming, a vast sum for a congressional primary and far ahead of Hageman, who has travelled the state extensively to court voters. This, too, is seen as evidence that the incumbent is beholden to outside interests.In Cheyenne, the state capital, Dianna Burchett, 62, a nurse who has voted for Cheney in the past, said: “She was put in office to do what the people of Wyoming wanted her to do and she went against the people of the state. She needs to keep her views to herself but she’s on a witch-hunt or blood hunt. It’s inexcusable.”Laura Harnish, 53, an administrator who used to sit on an election committee for Dick Cheney, added: “I wouldn’t vote for Liz Cheney if she was the last person on the ballot. The January 6 committee was very badly done. She wasn’t representing Wyoming at that point. I vote for you. That’s who you represent: Wyoming. If you’re not going to do that then you don’t need to be in office. You need to find something else to do.”In Wyoming, home to just 581,348 people, voters expect a certain level of intimacy with politicians. Mike Sullivan, the state’s former governor, described it as “a small town with unusually long streets”, and locals say that anyone who suffers a flat tyre never has to wait long for a helping hand.In Cheyenne, the “Magic City of the Plains”, members of the public can wander freely about the state capitol building with a lack of security restrictions that evokes an earlier time. The house of representatives chamber nods to the state’s origins with paintings representing “cattlemen”, “homesteaders”, “stage coach” and “trappers”.Wyoming has long had a way-out-west independent streak: in 1869 it became the first territory or state to grant women the right to vote and, in 1925, elected America’s first female governor, Nellie Tayloe Ross. Known as both the “Equality State” and “Cowboy State”, in the 1990s it welcomed visitors with signs that proclaimed: “Like no place on earth.”Even today it can feel remote from national trends. It has no major professional sports team and, since 1983, no scheduled passenger rail service. The state museum in Cheyenne notes that “for centuries, Wyoming was a place to journey through rather than a destination … the ‘Highway of the West’.”But in 2020 this was the state where Trump scored his biggest margin of victory, 43 percentage points. In downtown Cheyenne, the Republican party office window displays a prominent sign: “Election integrity”. Inside, in uneasy coexistence, the wall features portraits of former presidents Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan and Trump as well as a commemorative photo of Bush and Cheney’s inauguration in 2001.Loyalty to the Cheneys still runs deep in some quarters. On Tuesday afternoon, Richard Gage, 67, a lawyer, was hosing bushes outside his office. The lifelong Republican reflected: “She’s done a great job and she’s one of the few people with the courage to stand up to Donald Trump. He’s trying to destroy my democracy. He’s trying to overturn an election that he lost and that’s a direct threat to democracy itself.”Gage has a Cheney sign displayed prominently and said it has resulted in rubbish being thrown on his lawn, a glimpse of how this campaign has taken on a menacing tone. Cheney herself has faced death threats and been forced to abandon traditional campaign stops and public rallies in favour of small-scale private events.Joseph McGinley, a Republican county state committeeman who praises Cheney for “leadership in action” and believes she “would make a great president”, said: “There have been people that are supporting Hageman that have been stealing Cheney signs and vandalising Cheney signs.“I was away for the weekend and came back and half the Cheney signs were gone, even in our neighbourhood, not in a very public area. The stealing of Cheney signs is a real thing and that’s unfortunate. It shows the people that are supporting Hageman are willing to do anything and they’re afraid Cheney is going to win.”McGinley, 47, a doctor and entrepreneur based in Casper, said the battle for the soul of the state party can be traced back to the conservative Tea Party movement during the Barack Obama era. “They truly put in a ground game and it was many years and, if you were in the party, you could actually see it occurring.”This made for a party shifting under the Cheneys’ feet. Dick is deep in retirement but Liz has effectively been excommunicated by the state party, which voted last year to censure her before deciding to stop recognising her as a Republican altogether. Local party offices offer yard signs for Hageman and many other Republicans on the ballot but not Cheney.The congresswoman has therefore turned to an unlikely group for help: Democrats. Her campaign website features a link to a form allowing voters to change their party affiliation to Republican to take part in the Republican primary. This unusual move is based on an appeal to pragmatism in what is effectively a one-party state; Wyoming has voted Republican in every presidential election since 1968.It appears to be working. In January, according to the secretary of state’s office, there were 196,179 registered Republicans in the state and 45,822 registered Democrats. As of 1 August, this had shifted to 207,674 registered Republicans and 39,753 registered Democrats.David Martin, communications director of the Wyoming Democratic party, said: “I know a few people personally who have already switched over. I don’t think I’ll ever forget what one of them told me and she put it bluntly: ‘I’m voting to keep the crazies out.’”No “crossover” voter is more prominent than Sullivan, the former governor, who after six decades as a registered Democrat recently switched to Republican so he could vote for Cheney. The 82-year-old retired lawyer explained by phone from Casper: “There are times when politics takes a backseat. Her work has been extraordinary and it’s reflective of both her intellect and her leadership.”Sullivan, who served as governor from 1987 to 1995, said he was aware of Cheney yard signs being defaced or torn down in his neighborhood. “The nature of Liz’s opposition is more mean-spirited than when I was in office. You can attribute that to a lot of things but certainly President Trump opened the door to make that more mainstream than it has otherwise been.”Cheney has not ruled out a 2024 presidential run as a Republican or an independent. Asked if he would consider supporting her, Sullivan replied: “I’d have to make that decision at the time. Now, whether I can picture her running for president under the circumstances in which she finds herself, I don’t know. I’m convinced she’s going to come out with a very powerful legacy: the profile in courage sort of legacy that is going to put her in good stead.”Like her father, who under President Gerald Ford was the youngest chief of staff in White House history, Cheney plays a decades-long game. At one of the January 6 hearings, she reminded fellow Republicans that there will come a day when Trump is gone. Defeat on Tuesday might be the end of one career but the launchpad for another with even greater ambitions.Not all Democrats, however, are ready to embrace a conservative who used to appear regularly on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and, according to the FiveThirtyEight website, voted in line with Trump’s position 93% of the time during his presidency.Ted Hanlon, 63, running a long-shot campaign for the state senate, said: “I’ve been in Wyoming all my life. I knew her and I knew her dad and I have no evidence yet that a Cheney did something that was not self-serving.“I’m glad she’s doing the January 6 hearings. If any other Republicans had been on the January 6 committee it would not have gone as well as it has and would not have come as close to the truth as it has. So I’m grateful that she’s there. It does not cause me to admire her in any way though.”TopicsWyomingUS politicsRepublicansJanuary 6 hearingsfeaturesReuse this content More