Watching Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris joining forces with staunch Republican Liz Cheney this week on the campaign trail in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin was powerful. It also was glaring beacon of warning for women across the United States. As they spoke on stage, I was moved to tears and beamed with pride all at the same time.
Here we have two women from two extremely different backgrounds, with opposing points of view on many core political issues—including abortion, gun control, foreign policy, and much more — coming together to try and save America from the imminent danger of another Trump presidency.
Unlike Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and longtime Sen. Lindsey Graham — plus many more cowardly “conservatives” who obediently bend to Trump’s will — Harris and Cheney are unafraid. Even more, they’re speaking their minds. They’re pushing back. They’re showing machismo-obsessed Republicans what real alphas look like.
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“I’m a conservative. And I know that the most conservative of all conservative principles is being faithful to the Constitution,” Cheney said in Chester County, Pennsylvania. “You have to choose in this race between someone who has been faithful to the Constitution, who will be faithful, and Donald Trump, who — it’s not just us predicting how he will act. We watched what he did after the last election. We watched what he did on January 6,” she warned.
Cheney has been speaking out about January 6 for years. Her courage leading the Congressional investigation into Jan 6, cost her House seat. It cost her friends. It cost her a political career. And yet, she is unstoppable.
Liz Cheney is a hero. She is doing what’s right, no matter the cost.
Cheney is still fighting forward. She’s not retreating. In fact, she’s on the offensive again, fighting for truth, justice, and commitment to the Constitution — and she’s crossing over party lines and joining with Democrat Kamala Harris to speak out in a bipartisan way.
Like Cheney, Vice President Kamala Harris has also spent her life protecting our freedoms and fighting for justice. And right now, she is at the epicenter at the fight for America’s life.
It’s not hyperbole. America is on the line. And these two women — both honorees on Forbes and Know Your Value’s “50 over 50” list — are “outmanning” the men and becoming American heroes.
Whether it’s on the debate stage or on the campaign trail, Harris and Cheney are the front lines.
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Conservatives have revoked access to life-saving healthcare. But Cheney, herself a lifelong conservative, is joining with Harris to call for women across the country who now face these draconian restrictions to claw some freedoms back. Because right now, Harris and Cheney both know that our reality is only a small dose of what’s to come if Trump wins.
At this very moment, women are forced to bleed out in parking lots, deliver pregnancies that are unviable, and even risk death because of Trump overturning Roe.
It’s hard to believe, but things could get worse. We are in a moment where we have a former president saying out loud what he will do, laying the predicate for using our nation’s military to go after his political adversaries or anybody he doesn’t like.
Here we have Trump calling Jan. 6 “a day of love” And you see that attitude playing out on pro-Trump TV networks. My fear is that Americans will not believe that the insurrection at the nation’s capitol was anything at all.
This is fascism playing out before our eyes. We have a cult-like leader, with a giant megaphone, repeating things over and over again until they have the veneer of truth. This is the most dangerous game a presidential candidate or any politician has ever played in modern American history.
What gives me hope is the two smart, accomplished, experienced women who know their value and are putting everything aside to try and preserve and protect what many people simply can’t comprehend.
Freedom is supposed to be comfortable. We shouldn’t have to worry about it. And yet, perhaps we have become too comfortable. Too flip about the concept. We have become blase about our own history. We are a nation of immigrants, like my parents who escaped Hitler, fleeing their countries to ultimately come here to America to rebuild and be a part of our democracy.
Harris and Cheney are fighting for tomorrow. And if that tomorrow comes, they will be on the front lines of making sure America never finds itself on a cliff like this ever again.
Mika Brzezinski is the co-host of MS NOW's Morning Joe, founder of “Know Your Value” and author of four best-selling books, including “EARN IT!: Know Your Value and Grow Your Career, in Your 20s and Beyond” (Hachette Books; May 7, 2019) with co-author Daniela Pierre-Bravo. Prior to joining MSNBC in 2007, Mika was an anchor of CBS Evening News Weekend Edition and a CBS News correspondent who frequently contributed to CBS Sunday Morning and 60 Minutes.