Trump vanquishes his Republican critics - but still faces legal peril

Donald Trump's biggest Republican critic Liz Cheney losing her seat in Congress shows the party remains in the hands of the former president, US Correspondent Robert Moore reports

Now that the dust has settled after a series of primary elections across America, and as we head towards November's midterm Congressional contests, we can be in no doubt about the Republican party. It remains utterly in thrall to Donald Trump. Nearly all of those Republicans who have defied or criticised Donald Trump have been defeated. Eighty percent of House members who voted to impeach the former president have lost their bid to keep their Congressional seats. For Trump - facing mounting legal jeopardy - it is sweet revenge.

In the most recent primary, Liz Cheney - Trump's greatest critic within the party - was humiliated. She lost in a landslide. It means Cheney won't be able to run in November and she will soon lose the Congressional perch from which she has assailed Trump. Wyoming Republicans emphatically rejected her despite her deeply conservative politics - and they did so with a venom that made it an ugly and dangerous contest. Amid death threats and fears of political violence, Cheney barely campaigned.

Watch Correspondent Robert Moore's report from Washington DC on January 6 in full

Trump loyalists are furious with Liz Cheney for her role on the January 6th committee that is investigating the former president's role on that day of infamy. It means that the Republican party - the party of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan - has now fully embraced the conspiracy theory narrative that is at the heart of Trumpism. But Trump will not have long to savour the vanquishing of his internal enemies. Federal and state investigators are circling around every aspect of his life - his post-presidency handling of secret documents, his attempt to overturn the 2020 election, and his business dealings. For the man who wants to regain the White House in 2024, legal danger and political ascendancy, paradoxically, are going hand-in-hand.

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