Cheney weighs in on Trump’s legal woes: ‘Fundamental lack of character’

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) on Sunday said former President Trump’s cascade of legal woes demonstrates a “fundamental lack of character.”

CNN host Jake Tapper asked Cheney about Trump’s recent legal cases, including a judge ordering him to pay nearly $355 million in penalties in a New York civil fraud case last week and a jury ordering him to pay $83.3 million for defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll last month.

“And when you look at these cases, and you look at the verdicts and the judgments, it’s clear the common thread that runs through all of them is Donald Trump’s lack of willingness to abide by the law, lack of commitment to the truth, [his] fundamental lack of character,” Cheney said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“And one of the things that is so troubling about this political season is the extent to which you’ve got, you know, people that used to be good and honorable members of Congress, for example, who have simply apparently abandoned the need to actually elect people of character and honor and instead embracing him,” she continued.

Cheney took aim at Trump for the ruling in the Carroll case and pointed to the “Access Hollywood” tape that emerged just before the 2016 election as a reason the decision was “not something that’s out of left field.” A jury last year found that Trump was liable for sexually abusing Carroll in the mid-1990s — an allegation that Trump repeatedly denied.

The penalties from the civil fraud case and the Carroll defamation case total a whopping $438.1 million. Additional interest on the fines from the civil fraud case could bring that number up to above $500 million.

“Sounds like Liz Cheney is giving Nikki “Birdbrain” Haley a run for her money as the leader of the Never Trump movement,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement when reached for comment on Cheney’s remarks.

Updated at 2:55 pm.