Mark Schiefelbein/AP

… and former Republican Representative Liz Cheney—a Wisconsin native who represented Wyoming and served as the vice chair of the House committee that investigated the January 6^th attack on the Capitol—laid out the facts of the case against President Donald Trump in his alleged criminal attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

In Ripon, Wisconsin—a town known as the birthplace of the Republican party—Cheney made an impassioned speech against the former president and instead supporting and urging fellow Republicans to vote for Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris, as she is doing.

“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 keep power for himself. I don’t care if you are a Democrat, a Republican, or an Independent, “that is depravity,” Cheney said forcefully. “Any person who would do these things can never be trusted with power again. We must defeat Donald Trump on November 5^th.

“When we were campaigning in Wisconsin and all across the country, we were campaigning as compassionate conservatives. What January 6^th shows us is that there is not an ounce, 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.” Throughout her 20-minute speech, Cheney presented a litany of facts, all pointing to Trump’s alleged self-serving actions to overturn the election.

Yesterday, Special Counsel Jack Smith released a 165-page filing detailing the former president’s attempt to subvert the January 6th election. Among the evidence are five pages of personal notes taken by Vice President Mike Pence during an Oval Office meeting, where Trump pressured Pence to alter the results. According to the notes, Trump said, “Where there is fraud, the rules get changed,” and claimed, “You have the right to do whatever you want to do.'”

However, Pence rejected those plans.

While Pence was inside the Capitol ceremonially certifying Joe Biden’s election victory, Trump—speaking to his followers outside the White House—issued a veiled threat to his vice president: “Mike Pence, I hope you’re going to stand up for the good of our Constitution and for the good of our country. And if you’re not, I’m going to be very disappointed in you.”

Outside the Capitol, a violent mob chanted, “Hang Mike Pence,” as a noose hung from a makeshift scaffold.”

“When he learned that Vice President Pence was not going to abandon his oath and help Trump seize power,” Cheney said, reciting Jack Smith’s evidence, “Trump sent out a tweet attacking and further inflaming the mob. Shortly after that,” she continued “[a Trump] aide received a phone call alerting him that the vice president had been evacuated for his own safety. After this aide delivered that news, Donald Trump looked up at him and said, ‘So what.'”

“We cannot turn away from this truth,” Cheney emphasized. “In this election, putting patriotism ahead of partisanship is not an aspiration. It is our duty.”

In his closing argument in defense of British soldiers falsely accused of having willfully fired upon Boston citizens during the Boston Massacre, John Adams invoked the same passion, stating, “Facts are stubborn things, and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

Adams’s words echo powerfully today, reminding us that truth stands independent of our emotions or agendas.

The question now is, will we heed them?