Liz Cheney represents militarism without restraint, as did her neocon father. Trump served the military-industrial complex but outlived his usefulness when he wouldn't transition power. Both trends are a threat to what's left of American democracy. Col. Lawrence Wilkerson on theAnalysis.news with Paul Jay

Transcript

Paul Jay

Hi, welcome to theAnalysis.news, I'm Paul Jay. Please don't forget there is a donate button on the website, subscribe, share all of that stuff. I'll be back in a second with Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson. On January 4th, ten former secretaries of defense sent a letter to The Washington Post warning the military to stay out of determining the outcome of the presidential elections. It was clearly a message to elements within the military that might entertain the idea of supporting Trump's bid to invalidate the results of the election. On the same day, the Financial Times carried an editorial saying a coup was in progress. Well, it turns out Liz Cheney, working with her father, former vice president and war criminal Richard Cheney, organized that letter to the post. This is the same Liz Cheney who wholeheartedly supported the election of Trump in 2016. That is when many of her father's neocon friends had become Never Trumpers. On Wednesday, Liz Cheney was thrown out of the number three leadership position of the Republicans in the House because she refused to stop denouncing Trump for his lies about the stolen election.

So what is this Byzantine split between the far-right and the further far-right of the GOP all about now? Joining me is Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who was the chief of staff to Colin Powell at the State Department and Joint Chiefs, and is an associate professor, and he's a regular on the Analysis. The last time I checked, he was still a member of the Republican Party. Though I think I can say I am sure he's not part of the Cheney or the Trump wing, assuming he even still carries that membership. Thanks for joining us, Larry.

Lawrence Wilkerson

Good to be with you, Paul.

Paul Jay

So what does this split represent? I look at a guy like Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who at least, as a neocon foreign policy guy, was pretty much in the same camp as Cheney. During the primaries in 2016, Graham had nothing but bad things to say about Trump, but now he's become his greatest supporter and says the party has to keep Trump if it ever wants to win. Liz has taken this position. What does this mean in terms of the elites that back the Republican Party, the factions within the party? What is this split really about?

Lawrence Wilkerson

I have no idea other than what I read in the papers and what I glean from people with whom I talk because it's so bizarre. It's so surreal. The movement right now by I'm told somewhere around one hundred Republicans to form a third party is an example at least that there are some people like me still in the Republican Party who think the other side if you will, the majority, 75 million people voted for Trump in 2020 are certifiable and they're going to take the party down the drain, so to speak. So we need to have something else existing as a Republican Party that people can turn to. That said, Liz Cheney is not someone I would invite into that party. One of the things Donald Trump did, whether he intended it or not, was to resurrect George W. Bush's presidency. Before Donald Trump he was the worst president in the history of the republic. Now, Donald Trump is the worst president in the history of the republic. Well, that was presumably because of his vice president, if not in some ways, national security and foreign policy ways exclusively because of his vice president.