Warning her Sarasota audience not to become "numb" to the attack on the United States Capitol that occurred on Jan. 6, 2021, and former President Donald Trump's role in the events of that day, former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney on Tuesday outlined the potential consequences of a second Trump administration should he be elected again this November.

Cheney is a lifelong Republican and the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney. In 2017, she and her father were awarded the Republican Party of Sarasota County's Statesman and Stateswoman of the Year award. She split with many of her Republican colleagues in Congress after the events of Jan. 6 and voted to impeach Trump for his role in the insurrection, later serving as the vice chair of the congressional committee that investigated the attack on the Capitol. She was in Sarasota today as part of the Ringling College Library Association's Town Hall speaker series. Both a morning speech and an evening talk were sold out.

"Rather than concede defeat, when Donald Trump woke up on the morning of Jan. 6, he intended, despite having lost, to remain as president," Cheney said, contrasting the former president's actions with previous examples of peaceful transitions of power. Trump, Cheney said, tried to pressure state legislatures, the U.S. Department of Justice and Vice President Mike Pence into throwing out the results of the 2020 elections, "summoned a mob to Washington" and "sent them to march on the Capitol," then declined to take any action to halt or deter the violence. Cheney argued Trump's actions were not just a "dereliction of duty," but an act of "depravity."

Cheney was censured by Republican leaders in Congress and removed from leadership positions because of her stance on Trump and Jan. 6, and she lost her 2022 reelection bid in Wyoming's Republican primary by a significant margin. Since leaving office, she has delivered blistering speeches about her experiences in Congress and has urged voters to reject a second Trump administration. However, in Monday's Iowa caucuses, the first Republican primary contest of the year, Trump won easily, earning 51 percent of the votes and besting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and others by 30 percentage points.

Asked about the Iowa results during a media event before her talk, Cheney said that "it's very clear that you can't beat Donald Trump if you don't actually campaign against Donald Trump," criticizing his opponents for not confronting him more directly.

Some states have attempted to ban Trump from appearing on ballots this year because of his actions on Jan. 6. The text of the 14th Amendment says that "no person" shall "hold any office" if they "have engaged in insurrection or rebellion" against the Constitution. Asked about those legal efforts, Cheney said she agreed that Trump's conduct met the definition of the terms laid out in the 14th Amendment.

"My own view is that his actions clearly fall within the plain language of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment in terms of at least giving aid and comfort to an insurrection," Cheney said. But she cautioned that any decision about Trump and the 14th Amendment is ultimately up to the courts. "We have to be sure that we can beat him at the ballot box, as well," she said.

Cheney also criticized leaders in Congress who will not acknowledge that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election or who will not commit to certifying the results of this year's election. "It means that they are willing to claim for themselves the power that belongs to the people of this country," she said. "It means that they are willing to say, 'If we do not agree with the outcome, we're going to throw out the votes of millions of Americans. We're going to refuse to count electoral votes and instead install our own candidate.' That is not the rule of law. That's tyranny."