Rep. Liz Cheney: ‘I Was Wrong’ to Oppose Same-Sex Marriage

Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming, expressed regret for her stance against same-sex marriage on ’60 Minutes’ Sunday night (watch above), telling correspondent Leslie Stahl “Freedom means freedom for everybody.”

Cheney’s reversal has both personal and political implications. Her long-held opposition to same-sex marriage precipitated a falling out with her sister Mary, a married gay woman.

“I was wrong. I was wrong. I love my sister very much. I love her family very much. And I was wrong… my sister and I have had that conversation,” she said.

Stahl was visibly surprised by Cheney’s remarks, saying “Wow, I was not expecting that.”

“We need to work against discrimination of all kinds in our country, in our state,” Cheney continued, adding that a young transgender woman she met at a recent event told her she often feels unsafe.

“Nobody should feel unsafe,” Cheney told Stahl. “Freedom means freedom for everybody.”

Cheney has become an iconoclast within the Republican party. She’s criticized Donald Trump’s insistence that the 2020 presidential election was stolen – a thoroughly debunked claim – and she’s one of just two Republicans to sit on the House committee probing the January 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol.

“Millions of people around the country have been betrayed, misled, and deceived by Donald Trump,” Cheney said on ’60 Minutes.’

“When you look at the spread of these mistruths and the spread of the disinformation, you know, silence enables it. Silence enables the liar.” She added:

And silence helps it to spread. So the first thing you have to do is say, “No. I’m not going to accept that we’re gonna live in a post-truth world.” It’s a toxin…in our political bloodstream. Because when we allow that to continue to go on in the face of rulings of the courts, in the face of recounts, in the face of everything that’s gone on to demonstrate that there was not fraud that would have changed the outcome, then we all– if we do that, we are contributing to the undermining of our system. And it’s a really serious and dangerous moment because of that.

Cheney was removed from her GOP leadership position in May. She told ’60 Minutes’ that her conservative credentials are unimpeachable – she expressed support for water boarding, opposition to abortion, and criticism of President Joe Biden’s handling of both the economy and the war in Afghanistan.

“But the alternative cannot be a man who doesn’t believe in the rule of law, and who violated his oath of office,” Cheney said, referencing Trump.

She added, “Those who think that by ignoring Trump, he will go away, have been proven wrong.”

Asked about her primary opponent, Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman, Cheney said, “A vote against me in this race, a vote for whomever Donald Trump has endorsed is a vote for somebody who’s willing to perpetuate the big lie, somebody who’s willing to put allegiance to Trump above allegiance to the Constitution.”