Rep. Liz Cheney is extremely principled. That’s the line we’ve been fed over and over by not just the mainstream media, but also many figures on the right who seek to defend her. According to them, every move she makes against her own party and the interests of her constituents is really just a symptom of her love for God and country. She’s willing to “stand up” and “speak out,” even when it’s not politically convenient, because she cares.

Except, all of that is a crock and has been since the beginning of her crusade that has seen her join hands with Nancy Pelosi. Yesterday proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt, as Cheney went to bat for Mark Milley, lying about the timeline, and propping the politicized, leftwing failure of a general up as above reproach.

No one should question Gen. Milley's loyalty to our country, commitment to the Constitution or to the civilian chain of command.

We all should thank him for standing in the breach and following his duty during a time of peril for our nation. pic.twitter.com/NN3foJBYc5

— Rep. Liz Cheney (@RepLizCheney) September 29, 2021

This is not the kind of thing a person says if they are beholden to principle and are seeking to hold powerful people to account. The entire point of congressional oversight is to question the actions of appointed individuals who otherwise are not directly accountable to voters.

But perhaps Cheney could justify her comments if Milley truly were above reproach. Yet, the facts say that he clearly isn’t. This is a man who has pushed woke ideology on the military and whose rank incompetence helped lead to the deaths of 13 Americans in Afghanistan last month. Even putting aside the phone call with China, which we’ll get to in a second, Milley is not worthy of praise. He’s worthy of scorn and pushes for resignation.

Despite that, here’s Cheney attacking her own Republican colleagues for daring to try to hold Milley to any semblance of a standard as a military leader and administration official. Further, Cheney is lying when she tries to brush off Milley’s treasonous call with China as him “following his duty” in a “time of peril.” What she’s doing there is attempting to brush it off as a product of January 6th, except the call in question, where Milley gave aid and comfort to China without proper authority occurred, in October of 2020.

As RedState reported some weeks back, that completely blows up the idea that Milley was operating in some unique circumstance that justified his violation of the chain of command to essentially declare himself a military dictator.

Except, according to the above excerpts, the call most in question didn’t occur after January 6th. Rather, it occurred on October 30th, 2020. If you aren’t good with calendars, that was before the election even took place. Thus, all the ridiculous contentions that Milley was allowed to call up a PLA general to extend an offer of aid, one that could put American servicemembers and interests in harm’s way, simply don’t wash. Milley was lashing out and undermining the elected president of the United States long before January 6th became an issue. Though, to be clear, even if this call had taken place after January 6th, it still wouldn’t have been justified.

Lastly, before we get back to Cheney, I want to note that Milley himself admitted during this week’s testimony on Capitol Hill that he had zero indication Trump wanted to attack China. That further invalidates the idea that Milley was dealing with an extraordinary situation with the president that justified his actions.

And yet, Cheney defends him anyway. Why? Because Milley stuck his finger in Trump’s eye. That’s what this comes down to. There are no principles at play. Rather, Cheney is a typical politician, angry that Republicans weren’t into her and her obsessions, that is now playing the role of martyr. If that means siding with a general who called up the Chinese to pledge to commit treason, then she’s willing to do that.

I guess that’s within her right, but I never want to hear again that she’s operating on anything other than her own vindictive pettiness.