We take care of our own.
Hello everyone and thank you for being here today.
My name is Steve Michick and I'm the former Sheriff of Iowa County, Wisconsin,
where I was born and raised on a dairy farm.
A true cheese head.
I'm a lifelong Republican and in 2016 I voted for Donald Trump.
Because he sounded like a tough guy who could get things done.
Now looking back, I can't believe how wrong I was.
As President Trump showed me over and over again,
he does not have the values or the character to be in the White House.
He didn't actually deliver on any of his promises,
except of course to cut taxes for his billionaire donors on the backs of working families.
And then on January 6th, when I watched Trump try to overturn the election
and encourage his supporters to violently storm the U.S. Capitol,
ultimately resulting in the death of police officers,
I was appalled and terrified.
No member of law enforcement should be willing to stand next to him
after all we witnessed on January 6th.
And no one who cares about our Constitution should continue to stand by him
after he has shown his disrespect for our democracy.
It is now clear to me that Donald Trump is a danger to our country.
That is why I am voting for Vice President Kamala Harris.
When I was Sheriff, it didn't matter whether you were a Republican,
a Democrat, or anything in between.
My job was to protect and serve my community,
and I know Vice President Harris is the same kind of leader.
As a former prosecutor, she has spent her entire career working to deliver safety,
dignity, and justice to the people she serves.
Today, as we gather in the very town where the Republican Party was founded,
I am asking my fellow Republicans to join me
as we turn the page on Trump's campaign of division and chaos.
Thank you so much.
Now it is my honor to introduce a true patriot,
someone who will always put her country over party.
Congresswoman Liz Cheney.
Thank you.
Wow.
Thank you.
Thank you, all.
Thank you.
Thank you, all.
Thank you.
My God, what an amazing, amazing day to be in Wisconsin.
Thank you all.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Sheriff, for your courage and your service and for that wonderful introduction.
It is such a pleasure to be here today at Ripon College.
And I have to tell you all, Wisconsin is special for me for a particularly important reason.
Way back in 1966, when a very young Dick Cheney and Lynn Cheney were graduate students
at the University of Wisconsin.
I was born here.
So go Badgers, exactly.
So coming back to Wisconsin always feels to me more than a little bit like coming home.
I want you to know, the last time that I was here campaigning was 20 years ago in 2004.
And although politics divided us, certainly in that year, we were united in our admiration for the Packers legendary Bart Starr.
And one of the most special and memorable days I had on any campaign was the day that we got to spend with him,
which included a personal tour of Lambeau Field.
So very, very special to be back again.
Now, you all know, of course, that here in Ripon, the Republican party was founded.
It was founded in a meeting in 1854 in the little white schoolhouse.
And it was founded by people who were opposed to slavery.
It was that Republican party, the party of Lincoln and Eisenhower, party of Reagan and Bush.
It's that party that I belonged to my entire life.
I volunteered on my first presidential campaign.
I already told you how old I am, so I'll tell you.
In 1976, when I was 10 years old and I was ceiling envelopes for President Ford's reelection campaign,
I cast my first vote ever in 1984 for Ronald Reagan.
I served in the State Department in both Bush administrations and I served in the United States House of Representatives
for three terms, including as the third highest ranking Republican in House leadership.
So, in other words, I was a Republican even before Donald Trump started spray tanning.
I am a Ronald Reagan conservative.
I believe in limited government.
I believe in low taxes.
I believe in a strong national defense.
And I believe that the private sector is the engine of growth of our economy.
I believe that the family and not the government is the most important structure in our society.
I know that our security and our freedom depend upon a world in which America with our allies leads.
And above all else, I know that the most conservative of conservative values is fidelity to our Constitution.
I tell you, I have never voted for a Democrat, but this year I am proudly casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Thank you.
But mostly we're not going back.
Vice President Harris is standing in the breach at a critical moment in our nation's history.
She's working to unite reasonable people from all across the political spectrum.
Vice President Harris has dedicated her life to public service.
I know that she loves our country, and I know that she will be a president for all Americans.
As a conservative, as a patriot, as a mother, as someone who reveres our Constitution, I am honored to join her in this urgent cause.
As we meet here today, our republic faces a threat unlike any we have faced before.
A former president who attempted to stay in power by unraveling the foundations of our republic,
by refusing to accept the lawful results confirmed by dozens of courts of the 2020 election.
We cannot turn away from this truth.
In this election, putting patriotism ahead of partisanship is not an aspiration, it is our duty.
At the very heart of our survival as a republic is the peaceful transition of power.
Ronald Reagan said this was nothing short of a miracle, that every four or eight years,
the most powerful office in our land, indeed the most powerful office in the world,
is passed peacefully to a new president.
In the United States of America, violence does not and must never determine who rules us, voters do.
And in this country under our Constitution, our president has a particular solemn obligation
to ensure and guarantee the peaceful transfer of power.
Since the beginning of the republic, every president in our history has fulfilled that duty.
Every president until Donald Trump.
When Donald Trump woke up on the morning of January 6th, 2021,
his intention despite having lost the election was that he would remain president.
Rather than accept his loss and concede defeat, he had spent months overseeing a multi-part plan
to attempt to seize power and remain in office.
He ignored the rulings of the courts, he corruptly pressured state legislatures,
including here in Wisconsin, to overturn the results of their elections.
He told the Justice Department to lie for him.
He conspired to have fake electoral votes cast, and he corruptly pressured his vice president
to take illegal and unconstitutional actions.
He summoned a mob to Washington, D.C. with his lies.
And he sent the armed mob to the United States Capitol in an effort to stop the counting of electoral votes.
As the violent mob attacked our Capitol, in Donald Trump's name,
as a brutally beat law enforcement officers, as they hunted the vice president and the speaker of the house,
Donald Trump watched the attack on television for hours for hours.
Sitting in the dining room next to the Oval Office, he refused repeated pleas
from his family, from his closest advisors, from the most senior officials in his campaign
and in our government to tell the mob to leave.
And when Donald Trump finally did speak publicly after hours of violence, after the Capitol had been invaded,
he praised the rioters. He did not condemn them.
That's who Donald Trump is.
Those facts, those facts that we know about what Donald Trump did, including what he did when our Capitol was under siege,
those facts do not come from Donald Trump's political opponents.
Those facts come from the people closest to him.
They are the ones who testified that Donald Trump did not want to stop the violent attack on our Capitol.
When he learned that Vice President Pence was not going to abandon his oath and help Trump seize power,
Trump sent out a tweet attacking Pence and further inflaming the mob.
One of Trump's aides testified that shortly after that, this aide received a phone call alerting him
that the vice president had been evacuated for his own safety from his office off the floor of the Senate.
This aide recalled rushing to the dining room to tell Trump, hoping that this information would convince him to take immediate action
to ensure the vice president's safety.
Instead, after this aide delivered that news, Donald Trump looked up at him and said, so what?
He said, so what?
It is Donald Trump's closest aides who also told us this.
They said that while the attack on our Capitol was happening, Donald Trump was handed a note,
informing him that a civilian had been shot at the door to the chamber of the United States House of Representatives.
Donald Trump put the note down on the table in front of him, continued to watch the attack on television,
and still refused to tell the mob to leave the Capitol.
Donald Trump was willing to sacrifice our Capitol to allow law enforcement officers to be beaten and brutalized in his name,
and to violate the law and the Constitution in order to seize power for himself.
I don't care if you are a Democrat or a Republican or an independent.
That is depravity, and we must never become numb to it.
Any person...
Any person who would do these things can never be trusted with power again.
We must defeat Donald Trump on November 5th.
In that election, twenty years ago, when we were campaigning in Wisconsin and all across the country,
we were campaigning as compassionate conservatives.
What January 6th shows us is that there is not an ounce of compassion in Donald Trump.
He is petty, he is vindictive, and he is cruel.
And Donald Trump is not fit to lead this good and great nation.
Now, sometimes people will say, you know, January 6th wasn't that big a deal.
You know, in a time when I have heard many pretty stunning things from Republicans,
one of the most stunning was yesterday from your former governor, Scott Walker,
who said basically people are over January 6th.
When you think about what that means, that an elected official, a former elected official,
is so willing to minimize what happened, to say things like I've heard from others,
to say, don't worry, our institutions held that day.
We have a responsibility, all of us, to remind people that our institutions don't defend themselves.
We the people have to do that. We the people defend our institutions.
And our institutions held on January 6th because there were brave men and women,
including elected officials at every level of our government who did their duty,
who stood up for what was right, who resisted Donald Trump's efforts to pressure them,
and to violate their oaths.
And our institutions held especially because of the bravery of the men and women in law enforcement,
and in our military, in our capital police, our secret service, the Metropolitan Police.
They are the ones who defended our capital, our democracy, and our lives.
Many of them fought a bloody, bloody, hours-long battle on the West Front of the Capitol.
Go watch the video of that battle. It is sickening.
They're the ones who held the line and prevented far worse from happening that day.
They are the true profiles encouraged.
Do not let anyone lie about what happened and what they did.
Our institutions also held because of Vice President Mike Pence, who refused to violate his oath to the Constitution.
And that is why Mike Pence is not Donald Trump's running mate today.
Instead, JD Vance is on the ticket.
Vance has said, I mean, that's true.
Vance has said repeatedly that he would have done what Donald Trump wanted,
that he would have rejected electoral votes, he would have thrown out the votes of the people of Wisconsin,
because he didn't like the way that you voted.
That is tyranny, and that is disqualifying.
History teaches us, again and again, that democracies can fall.
They fall to populists, they fall to strong men.
Strong men who beguile their fellow citizens with conspiracy theories and false emergencies.
As my friend the late Charles Krauthammer taught us, the lesson of our history is that the task of merely maintaining strong and sturdy
the structures of our constitutional order is unending.
It is the continuing and ceaseless work of every generation.
And that responsibility now falls on all of us in this election.
This great country of ours requires leaders of character.
We must choose men and women who have what Abraham Lincoln called a sincere heart.
Our nation's second president, John Adams, put it this way.
On the first night he ever spent in the White House, he wrote a letter to his wife Abigail.
And his letter included a prayer.
A prayer that is so special, President Kennedy had it engraved in the mantelpiece in the state dining room in the White House.
And in his letter he said this, may none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.
Now I'm confident, just a second.
I am confident that John Adams meant women too.
In this election, a broad coalition has come together to support Vice President Kamala Harris.
Now we may disagree on some things, but we are bound together by the one thing that matters to us as Americans more than any other.
And that's our duty to our Constitution and our belief in the miracle and the blessing of this incredible nation.
We have a shared commitment, a shared commitment as Americans to ensuring that future generations live in a nation where power is transferred peacefully.
Where our leaders are men and women of good faith and where our public servants set aside partisan battles to do what's right for this country.
So today I ask all of you here and everyone listening across this great country to join us.
I ask you to meet this moment.
I ask you to stand in truth to reject the depraved cruelty of Donald Trump.
And I ask you instead to help us elect Kamala Harris for President.
I know that President Harris will be able to unite this nation.
I know that she will be a president who will defend the rule of law.
And I know that she will be a president who can inspire all of our children.
And if I might say so, especially our little girls.
To do great things.
So help us write the ship of our democracy so that history will save us when our time of testing came.
We did our duty and we prevailed because we loved our country more.
And now it is my great honor to introduce you to our vice president and the next president of the United States, Kamala Harris.
And now it is my great honor to introduce you to our vice president and the next president of the United States.
And now we are here for Liz Cheney.
It is so good to be back in Wisconsin.
I thank you everyone for being pleased to have a seat.
I thank you all for being here.
I just have to emphasize that every time I come here and Liz, I was actually a kid here too when my parents at the University of Wisconsin.
So we have that in common as well.
I'm in fact Tony, he always says when I land, welcome home.
But I say all that to say every time that I come here recently, one of the conversations that we have all of us together is how much we love our country.
And that that really is the binding factor in us all being together and taking the time to be together to really just renew and remind everyone of what is at stake.
We are not born out of love that we have this fight.
And I want to thank you Liz Cheney for reminding us that that regardless of party affiliation is a factor that binds us all.
And so I thank you for your support and your leadership and your courage.
I also want to thank all the other great leaders who are with us today, Governor Tony Evers.
Very good.
Thank you.
Mayor Grant, thank you for the warm welcome.
I want to thank Senator Tammy Baldwin who is traveling around the state.
But who I know you will re-elect in November.
Thank you, Sheriff Mitch Eck, for your support and your life of service to the people of Iowa County.
And so I do want to say a bit more about Liz Cheney.
You all know her leadership and she has obviously and so importantly been a leader for the people of Wyoming.
But she has also been an extraordinary national leader and has served with great honor.
And she not only as she has talked today recognizes that characters among the most important attributes of leadership, but she also personifies that attribute.
And she possesses some of the qualities of character that I most respect in any individual and any leader.
Courage, especially at a moment like this, where there are so many powerful forces
that lead to itself.
And it is my profound honor to have your support.
And I also want to thank your father, Vice President Dick Cheney, for his support and
what he has done to serve our country.
Every endorsement matters, and this endorsement matters a great deal, Liz, and it carries
the special significance because, as you said, we may not see eye to eye on every issue,
and we are going to get back to a healthy two-party system.
I am sure of that, where we will have vigorous debates.
And as you said, you may not have supported a Democrat for President before, but as you
have also said, we both love our country and we revere our democratic ideals.
And we both also believe in the nobility of public service.
And we know that our oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America is a sacred
oath.
And oath that must be honored and must never be violated.
And your words today and the reason we are all here today, I think really do underscore
perhaps one of the most fundamental questions that is facing the American people in this
election.
Who will obey that oath?
Who will abide by the oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the
United States of America?
I have had the privilege.
Thank you.
And I have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution six times in my career, including
as Vice President, as a United States Senator, and as the top law enforcement officer of
the largest state in our country, responsible for upholding and enforcing the laws of the
state and the laws of the United States was the work I did.
And I have never wavered in upholding that oath.
And I have always executed it faithfully and without reservation.
And therein lies the profound difference between Donald Trump and me.
He who violated the oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America.
And make no mistake, he who, if given the chance, would violate it again.
Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.
And as you have heard and know, he refused to accept the will of the people and the results
of an election that was free and fair.
As you have heard, he sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol where they assaulted
law enforcement officers.
He threatened the life of his own vice president and refused to engage in the peaceful transfer
of power.
And let us be clear about how he intends to use power if elected again.
He has called for jailing journalists, political opponents, anyone he sees and deans as being
an enemy.
He has pledged to destroy the independence of the Department of Justice.
And he called for deploying our active duty military against our own citizens.
Well I believe, you and my running mates both, well listen, I believe that anyone who recklessly
tramples on our democratic values as Donald Trump has, anyone who has actively and violently
obstructed the will of the people and the peaceful transfer of power as Donald Trump has, anyone
who has called for, I quote, termination of the Constitution of the United States, as
Donald Trump has, must never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United
States, never again, never again, and the tragic truths, the tragic truths that we
are facing in this election for President of the United States is that there is actually
an honest question about whether one of the candidates will uphold the oath to the Constitution
of the United States.
That is the tragic truth of this election, that this is actually an honest question that
we are having as Americans.
And I know the vast majority of us agree that upholding the Constitution must be a basic
requirement.
We expect of anyone seeking the highest office in the land.
I know the vast majority of us, regardless of your political party, agree we must hold
sacred America's fundamental principles from the rule of law to free and fair elections
to the peaceful transfer of power.
And if you share, if you share that view, no matter your political party, there is a place
for you with us and in this campaign, because those principles, I know unite us across party
lines.
And in this election, I take seriously my pledge to be a President for all Americans,
my entire career, my entire career, I've only had one client, the people.
And when I say that, and when I say that, I mean all the people, not just those who
share my party affiliation, through all my decades in law enforcement, I never asked
a victim or a witness, are you a Republican or a Democrat?
The only question I ever asked was, are you okay?
And that is the kind of President we deserve, and I pledge to you that is the kind of President
I will be, because the President of the United States must not look at our country through
the narrow lens of ideology or petty partisanship or self-interest.
The President of the United States must not look at our country as an instrument for their
own ambitions.
Our nation is not some spoil to be one.
The United States of America is the greatest idea humanity ever devised, the nation that
inspired the world to believe in the possibilities of a representative government.
And so in the face of those who would endanger our magnificent experiment, people of every
party must stand together, and let me be clear, democracy and freedom are not only
at stake here at home, they are also at stake around the world.
As President of the United States, I will strengthen not abdicate America's global leadership.
Last week I met with Ukraine's President Zelensky, and the message I delivered was the same
message I've shared with him every time I've seen him.
I stand with Ukraine, and I always will.
And I told him as I have before, I want Ukraine to prevail.
By contrast, in our debate, Donald Trump couldn't even bring himself to say he wanted Ukraine
to win the war.
He couldn't even bring himself to say that.
A war that Putin, a brutal dictator, launched against a free and independent people.
Trump wants to force Ukraine to give up its sovereign territory, a bedrock principle
upon which we stand and fight for.
And you know who else wants them to give up their sovereign?
Absolutely, territory?
Putin!
And that's not a plan for peace, it's a plan for surrender.
Well, I believe that in the global struggle between tyranny and democracy, the President
of the United States must always be on the side of freedom.
So, we are gathered here today in Ripon, not far, as the Congresswoman mentioned, from
a small building where the Republican Party was born in 1854.
Liz Cheney stands in the finest tradition of its leaders.
And if – and if people across Wisconsin and our nation are willing to do what Liz
is doing to stand up for the rule of law, for our democratic ideals, and the Constitution
of the United States, then together I know we can chart a new way forward, not as members
of any one party, but as Americans, Americans who are united – united in our devotion
to the country we love.
I thank you all, may God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.
I'm a weight, I'm a weight to the waters, tele-tied on the moon, I'm a riot, I'm a
riot to your borders, call me bulletproof.
I'm a weight, I'm a weight to the waters, tele-tied on the moon, I'm a weight, I'm
a weight to your shoulders, tele-tied on the moon, I'm telling these tears going far
away, far away, oh, I made a last one burning through flames.
Freedom, freedom, I came home, freedom for me to change.
Freedom, freedom, where are you?
Cause I need freedom too.
I break today's up under my tail, won't end my freedom right in hell, hey?
I'ma keep on running cause the winner don't quit on themselves.
Freedom, freedom, where are you?
I need freedom, too.