Liz Cheney helps Kamala Harris seek moderate votes as they paint Donald Trump as a dangerous choice

PHILADELPHIA — Kamala Harris joined Liz Cheney on Monday to make a bipartisan appeal to Republican voters worried about Donald Trump, painting the former president as an evil force who needs to be removed from American politics.

The Democratic vice president said at an event in the Philadelphia suburbs that Trump “has used the power of the presidency to demean and divide us” and “people are exhausted by it.”

“People all over the world are watching,” Harris said. “And sometimes I get a little worried if we as Americans really understand how important we are to the world.”

Cheney, a former congresswoman from Wyoming, said her conservative background means she prioritizes the Constitution over her political party, and that she is concerned about allowing a “totally erratic and completely unstable” Trump to manage foreign policy.

“Our adversaries know they can play Donald Trump,” she said. “And we can’t afford to take that risk.”

Trump has often tried to portray Harris, who is from blue California, as a radical liberal, but she struck a moderate tone during her appearance with Cheney.

Harris promised to “invite good ideas from wherever they come” and “eliminate bureaucracy,” and she said there “should be a healthy two-party system” in the country.

“We need to be able to have these intense debates about issues that are grounded in facts,” Harris said.

“Imagine!” Cheney responded.

“Let’s start there!” Harris said as the audience applauded. “Can you believe that’s an applause line?”

Harris had two more events with Cheney on Monday, all three in counties won by Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who ran against Trump for the Republican nomination.

The next stop is Oakland County, in suburban Detroit, and the third is Waukesha County, outside of Milwaukee.

With just over two weeks to go until the presidential election and with the race tied, the Democratic candidate is seeking the support of all possible voters. His campaign hopes to persuade those who haven’t yet made up their minds, mobilize any Democrats who are considering sitting out, and win over voters in areas where support for Trump may be waning.

A few votes here and there could result in an overall victory. In Waukesha County, for example, Haley received more than 9,000 votes in the primary even after dropping out of the race. Overall, Wisconsin was chosen by President Joe Biden in 2020 by just 20,000 votes. In-person early voting in the state begins Tuesday.

Cheney says she supported Harris because of her concerns about Trump. She lost her House seat after co-chairing a Congressional committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. That’s when a violent mob of Trump supporters stormed the building and bled authorities in a failed effort to stop the certification of Biden’s 2020 presidential victory.

Trump lashed out at Cheney on social media Monday, calling her “dumb as a rock” and accusing her of being a “war hawk.”

Cheney is not the only member of her party to support Harris. More than 100 former Republican officials and staffers joined Harris last week in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, not far from where Gen. George Washington led hundreds of troops across the Delaware River to a major victory in the Revolutionary War.

At a rally there, Cheney told Republican voters that the patriotic choice was to vote Democrat.

As the election approaches, the vice president has increasingly focused on Trump’s lies surrounding the 2020 election and his role in the violent mob’s failed efforts. She says Trump is “unstable” and “troubled” and would eviscerate democratic norms if he had a second term in the White House.

“I believe that Donald Trump is an unserious man,” she says at her rallies, “and the consequences of him returning to the White House are brutally serious.”

Trump has tried to downplay the Jan. 6 violent confrontation while campaigning, claiming it was “a day of love from the perspective of millions.”