Liz Cheney Receives Standing Ovation in Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church As She Warns of Dire Threat From Trump

Ex-Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) addressed the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Monday during a commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. on MLK Day.

“I have never been more honored by any invitation than I was when Dr. Bernice King called and invited me to be here at Ebenezer Baptist Church—in perhaps the most significant pulpit in this great nation of ours—with all of you this morning to honor the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Cheney began as she discussed Dr. King’s legacy and eventually turned to the 2024 GOP primary.

“As we meet this morning, a great lie is doing its work poisoning the bloodstream of our democracy. A former president refuses to acknowledge he lost and has convinced millions that our election and our democracy no longer work,” Cheney declared, adding:

He threatens the foundations of our nation, and everything Dr. King persevered to save. If given the chance, the former president’s allies in Congress will once again ignore the rulings of our courts, the plain language of our Constitution – as they claim for themselves the right to throw out the votes of millions of Americans and install their former leader as our president. We must not let them prevail.

After a lengthy standing ovation — including from the church’s senior pastor and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) — Cheney went on to say, “Faith communities have a particular obligation this year. There are churches across this nation where ministers preach from the pulpits an adoration of this former president. There are pastors who seem to have forgotten the First Commandment and are openly embracing an immoral, unstable, and depraved man who threatens violence and death, who attacks the rule of law, who says he can terminate our Constitution.”

Read the full copy of Cheney’s speech below:

Good Afternoon.

I have never been more honored by any invitation than I was when Dr. Bernice King called and invited me to be here at Ebenezer Baptist Church—in perhaps the most significant pulpit in this great nation of ours—with all of you this morning to honor the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The battle Dr. King led for civil rights – the battle that changed the world – was deeply grounded in his Christian faith and in his devotion to America. Writing from the Birmingham jail in 1963, Dr. King said, “The sacred heritage of our nation and the will of Almighty God are embodied in our demands.”

He knew the American dream was a dream unfulfilled, but to read Dr. King’s descriptions of our founding documents is to feel yourself in the presence of one who knew these documents were a shield, and a sword, a compact, capturing the aspirations of our nation and embodying a promise for every one of us. “The substance of the dream,” he said, “is expressed in these sublime words, words lifted to cosmic proportions: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

As courageous students were sitting in at lunch counters across the south, he said, “I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream, and taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.”

Dr. King fought bigotry and racism and hate with a reverence for freedom, an unshakeable courage and faith in God, and a determination to live in truth. His life and work serve truly as a call to conscience for us all – and never have we faced a greater need to heed that call than we do today.

As we meet this morning, a great lie is doing its work poisoning the bloodstream of our democracy. A former president refuses to acknowledge he lost and has convinced millions that our election and our democracy no longer work. He threatens the foundations of our nation, and everything Dr. King persevered to save. If given the chance, the former president’s allies in Congress will once again ignore the rulings of our courts, the plain language of our Constitution, and the outcome of our elections – as they claim for themselves the right to throw out the votes of millions of Americans. We must not let them prevail.

Faith communities have a particular obligation this year. There are churches across this nation where ministers preach from the pulpits an adoration of this former president. There are pastors who seem to have forgotten the First Commandment and are openly embracing an immoral, unstable, and depraved man who threatens violence and death, who attacks the rule of law, who says he can terminate our Constitution.

All people of good will in this nation – regardless of race, religion, political affiliation, regardless of anything else that might divide us—must stand against this. And we must do so together.

We must draw back from the abyss and see each other anew– not as partisans, but as God’s children. We must work – and vote together – to ensure we do not lose all that so many have fought and sacrificed for in generations before us.

The danger, as Dr. King taught us, is not only the vitriolic words and violent actions of bad people, but also the appalling silence and indifference of good people. We all must act. We all must serve. The only requirement for service, as Dr. King said, “is a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

As we honor the greatness of Dr. King, let us also remember the goodness of our nation, the kindness of our neighbors, the better angels of our nature, that the God who gave us life gave us liberty. Let us resolve that we will rise above what divides us to love our country more. And let us resolve to live in truth fortified by the memory and lessons of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King.

On March 25, 1965, standing in front of the Alabama state capitol in Montgomery, at the end of the march from the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Dr. King reminded the world that “no lie can live forever.”

“I know you are asking today,” he said, “how long will it take? I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long because the truth crushed to earth will rise again.” Together, remembering the lessons and courage of Dr. King, we can make sure it does.

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless America.