 July 27, 2021 | by Chris Cillizza and Lauren Dezenski Every Republican should be required to read Liz Cheney's opening statement  Rep. Liz Cheney has risked her entire career on her belief that what happened on January 6 at the US Capitol was Donald Trump's doing -- and needs to be investigated in a fulsome (and nonpartisan) manner in order to protect American democracy.
It's a path that almost no other politician in America today has taken. It's a principled stand, and it's beyond politics. (The best thing for Cheney, politically speaking, would be to sit silently or even endorse the "Big Lie" that the 2020 election was stolen.)
Because of Cheney's willingness to risk her career to take a stand on something she believes in deeply, it's worth listening when she talks.
And she talked on Tuesday, delivering a powerful reminder of what makes our democracy great and how tenuous it can be in her opening statement of the first hearing of the January 6 committee.
You should read the whole thing here. But one bit in particular very much stood out to me.
Here it is:
"America is great because we preserve our democratic institutions at all costs. Until January 6th, we were proof positive for the world that a nation conceived in liberty could long endure. But now, January 6th threatens our most sacred legacy. The question for every one of us who serves in Congress, for every elected official across this great nation, indeed, for every American is this: Will we adhere to the rule of law? Will we respect the rulings of our courts? Will we preserve the peaceful transition of power? Or will we be so blinded by partisanship that we throw away the miracle of America? Do we hate our political adversaries more than we love our country and revere our Constitution?"
That's it right there. Every single one of Cheney's House Republican colleagues, the vast majority of whom voted to object to the Electoral College results in Pennsylvania and Arizona despite zero evidence of any widespread fraud in either state, should heed her words above.
And the question Cheney asks so powerfully is this: What's more important -- your party or your country?
Or put another way: How far are you willing to go in slavish adherence to a man who would seek to undermine the courts, the Congress and even our democracy in order to keep his fragile ego intact?
The answer, at least to date, is that Republicans -- or the vast majority of them -- are willing to follow Trump wherever he leads, no matter the damage done to democracy. Why? Because they want to get reelected, mostly.
The Point: Cheney's speech is a powerful reminder of the stakes for the January 6 committee. And the near-certain lack of Republicans willing to stand with her on principle -- and against Trump's Big Lie -- speaks to where we are as a nation. And it's not a good place.
-- Chris QUOTE OF THE DAY "A peaceful transfer of power didn't happen this year." -- Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who's the chair of the House select committee investigating the 1/6 insurrection, in his opening remarks. THE CASE FOR PAYING CYBER RANSOMS  Congress should not attempt to address the threat of ransomware by making ransom payments to cybercriminals illegal, a top FBI official told US lawmakers Tuesday, as reported by CNN's Brian Fung.
Banning ransom payments could inadvertently create opportunities for further extortion by ransomware gangs, said Bryan Vorndran, assistant director of the FBI's cyber division.
"If we ban ransom payments now, you're putting US companies in a position to face yet another extortion, which is being blackmailed for paying the ransom and not sharing that with authorities," Vorndran said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on ransomware.
The Justice Department hopes Congress will step in by injecting some transparency into ransom trends. Businesses should have to disclose attacks to the US government that involve ransomware, critical infrastructure or "other high-impact breaches," said Richard Downing, deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's criminal division.
TOP TWEETS  1. The US Capitol Police chief has tweeted 2. John is absolutely right 3. This is so depressing 4. This shirt deserves a Dundie 5. But now we said it 6. A hailstorm dampened Sen. Tester's summer recess
LAUREN'S GOOD READS  The Washington Post took a deep dive into the data out of states that ended their extra Covid-19 unemployment benefits to encourage people to go back to work. Their findings? No hiring boom, but workers over 25 years old are returning to the workforce.
Return of the masks: The CDC updated its mask guidance on Tuesday to recommend that fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors when in areas with "substantial" and "high" transmission of Covid-19, which includes nearly two-thirds of all US counties, via CNN.
My former Politico colleague Natasha Korecki's excellent dispatch from Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, reveals so much about why many still won't get a Covid-19 vaccine -- and America's deepening divide between the vaxxed and unvaxxed.
This is not a headline I expected to read in the Wall Street Journal: U.S. Sells Unique Wu-Tang Clan Album Owned by Martin Shkreli.
Three cheers for Simone Biles.
MUSICAL INTERLUDE Lauren is digging this summer song recommendation from Point reader Cathy Abes: The Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City." Have a favorite summer song? Tell me about it: lauren.dezenski@cnn.com. SURPRISE!  Former President Trump has talked -- and fundraised -- extensively about "election fraud." Yet not all the money he's raised for his PAC has gone to fighting it.
In this latest episode of The Point, Chris explains where the money is going — and why.
Stick with The Point on YouTube and subscribe!  ONE BIG RUNOFF ELECTION TX-6 It's Election Day south of Dallas/Fort Worth as the special runoff election for Texas' 6th District US House seat pits Trump-backed candidate Susan Wright against fellow Republican and state Rep. Jake Ellzey. With turnout expected to be low, according to the Dallas Morning News, the outcome is anyone's guess. You are receiving this message because you subscribed to CNN's The Point with Chris Cillizza newsletter. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up now to get The Point in your inbox.
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