Cheney doubts Johnson will carry out 'constitutional obligations' to certify election

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said in a Sunday interview that she doubts House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will carry out “his constitutional obligations” to certify the 2024 election.

In the interview on “Meet the Press,” NBC News’s Kristen Welker referenced a conversation with Johnson earlier Sunday. Welker had pressed Johnson on certifying the election results.

“Regardless of who wins, you'll certify the results?” she asked the House Speaker, a staunch supporter of former President Trump.

“Regardless, of course it — yes, if the election is free and fair and legal, and we pray and hope that it is,” Johnson responded. “There's a lot of work being done to make sure that's true. I think this one's gonna be so large there'll be no question. I think Donald J. Trump is your next president, and that can't happen soon enough.”

When asked whether she has “faith that this election will be free and fair and that there will be a peaceful transfer of power,” Cheney told Welker she does “not have faith that Mike Johnson will fulfill his constitutional obligations.”

“And if you just look at what he did in 2020, he knew — and he knew with specificity — that the claims of fraud that Donald Trump was making and that he was repeating, he knew those to be false,” the Wyoming Republican said. “We had very clear and specific conversations about that. He knew that courts had specifically found that those claims were false. He knew they weren't true.”

Cheney became a prominent critic of Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol. She was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach the former president in the wake of the riots, and she has endorsed Vice President Harris in this year’s election.

Cheney appeared at a campaign rally in Wisconsin alongside Harris earlier this month, where she urged Americans "to stand in truth, to reject the depraved cruelty of Donald Trump, and I ask you instead to help us elect Kamala Harris for president.”

In her “Meet the Press” appearance, Cheney said Johnson “has a record repeatedly of doing things that he knows to be wrong, that he knows to be unconstitutional in order to placate Donald Trump.”

“And frankly, you know, you saw that sycophancy just now on display,” Cheney added. “So, I think that it is — it's very concerning.”

The Hill has reached out to Johnson's office for comment.