'We Keep Electing Idiots': Liz Cheney thinks politics is broken and if the GOP nominates Trump again the party will crumble

• Liz Cheney said politics are so broken that 'we're electing idiots'
• The former congresswoman also argued the GOP will crumble if Trump becomes its 2024 nominee.

Former Congresswoman Liz Cheney thinks that US politics is fundamentally broken at a time when the nation faces critical challenges.

"What we've done in our politics is create a situation where we're electing idiots," Cheney told David Rubenstein during a Monday conversation at 92nd in New York. Parts

Rubenstein pressed Cheney on if she would run for president as an independent if it meant that she could hurt former President Donald Trump's chances of retaking the White House. Cheney, who has been unsparing in her criticisms of Trump, did not directly address that tantalizing possibility.

"I don't look at it through the lens of this is what I should or shouldn't do, I look through it through the lens of, how do we elect serious people?" she responded. "Electing serious people can't be partisan. Because of the situation we're in where we have a major party candidate that is trying to undermine our democracy, and I don't say that lightly, we have to think about the kinds of alliances necessary to defeat him."

Cheney made it clear that amid talk of a potential third-party bid, she has absolutely no interest in doing "anything that could help Donald Trump."

Once thought of as a potential House Speaker, Cheney was booted from office after her 37-point drubbing at the hands of now-Rep. Harriet Hageman in the Republican primary. Trump and other senior Republicans, including now-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy strongly supported Hageman's challenge. Cheney alienated many in her party by voting in favor of Trump's second impeachment and later agreeing to serve on the House January 6 committee. She remains unrepentant about either of those decisions.

As for Trump, Cheney continues to believe the 45th President of the United States is a danger both to his party and the nation as a whole. A daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, the former congresswoman thinks the party of Lincoln will crumble if the GOP renominates Trump as its presidential nominee.

"We're at a moment in our country where there is a tectonic shift going on in our politics," Liz Cheney said. "And, I think in particular if the Republican Party — I'm not sure if it is salvageable now — if the Republican Party nominates Donald Trump it will shatter and we will have a whole new politics, as we should."