Liz Cheney Recounts 4 Words From Her Father

More snippets of Liz Cheney's new memoir are out ahead of its formal release on Tuesday, and the latest from Axios involves her famous father. In Oath and Honor, the younger Cheney writes about how she and former Vice President Dick Cheney were at his house on New Year's Eve of 2020, on the phone with former defense chief Donald Rumsfeld and his daughter, Marcy. The Cheneys were trying to get all 10 living former defense secretaries to sign a letter urging the military not to get involved in the outcome of the presidential election. (They were successful: The open letter was published in the Washington Post on Jan. 3, 2021, three days before the Capitol riot.)

In the book, Liz Cheney writes that after her father read the letter to Rumsfeld, he agreed to sign it. The following day, she returned to her parents' home with her own family for lunch:

• "As we were leaving, my father came outside to the driveway. He walked around to the passenger side of my car and gave me a hug. Then he looked at me and with steel in his voice said, 'Defend the republic, daughter,'" she writes, per Axios. "I will, Dad," she replied.

Liz Cheney also spoke with NPR on Monday, reiterating her warning about another Donald Trump presidency. "All of these things that we know Donald Trump and those who enabled him did before, they will do again," she said. "And people who are willing to abide by that, including Republicans in Congress, can't be trusted with power. And that's something that voters need to have at the forefront of their minds when they go into the voting booth in 2024." (Cheney also wrote about confronting Kevin McCarthy over his famous visit to Mar-a-Lago shortly after the Jan. 6 riot.)