Alaskans can line up to hear former Rep. Liz Cheney on May 1 at the Atwood Concert Hall in Anchorage.
She, who vice-chaired the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, is being brought from Wyoming to Anchorage by the University of Alaska Anchorage as part of the College of Arts and Sciences Community Lecture Series.
Her 90-minute lecture is titled “Defending Democracy: A Conversation with Liz Cheney.”
The event has resulted in much debate, due in part to Cheney being a particularly polarizing political figure, intensely anti-Trump, and because she is being paid $151,000, as reported by The Alaska Landmine.
Cheney, who was a Republican representative for Wyoming and was a House GOP leader, was ousted in the Republican primary in 2022 after serving in Congress for just four years. She lost by a landslide.
Now, according to her booking agent, she makes between $75,000 and $150,000 for a single speaking engagement.
The university is paying the top end of Cheney’s range, but says the cost of the entire lecture series is recovered by ticket sales and sponsorships. Tickets are going for between $58 and $166.50, and it appears half of the approximately 2,000 seats are still available. If tickets average $75 apiece, the university will need a sell-out crowd to barely break even.
The venue at the Anchorage Performing Arts Center itself is not cheap and may cost the university as much as $10,000 for the evening. Plus, the university is paying for Cheney’s first-class travel and luxury accommodations. All that could push the cost of her visit up to $165,000. There are sponsorships, but those haven’t been made public yet.
Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, chaired the House Republican Conference, the third-highest position in the House Republican leadership, from 2019 to 2021, and served as the Vice Chair of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.
Cheney publicly blamed Trump for inciting what she called an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, and said that he “summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack.”
Her father Dick Cheney called Trump the greatest threat to American democracy in 2020. Again in 2024, he said, “In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.” Both Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz Cheney endorsed Kamala Harris for president, and Liz campaigned with Harris.
Her harsh criticism of Trump puts her at odds with much of her party, which largely sought to avoid directly confronting the former president. She is more in line with Rep. Lisa Murkowski than with most Alaska Republicans or conservatives.
Cheney is expected to speak about the need to not be aligned with a party. Indeed, she is not aligned with Republicans and in November 2021, the Wyoming Republican Party voted to no longer recognize her as a member of the GOP. It was a symbolic move by the state party, similar to the censure Alaska Republicans voted overwhelming for in censuring Murkowski on March 13, 2021, and does not affect Cheney’s official voter registration status.
During the second impeachment of Trump, which charged him with “incitement of insurrection,” Cheney was one of only 10 House Republicans who voted in favor of impeachment on Jan. 13, 2021. So did Murkowski, when the Senate voted on whether to convict Trump after the House impeachment process.
Cheney’s vote broke her away from most of the party; 197 House Republicans, including then-Congressman Don Young, voted against the article of impeachment. Congressman Young said publicly that Jan. 6 was not an insurrection.
Cheney served previously at the State Department as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, and worked in USAID.
In 2022, Cheney and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky received the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library’s prestigious Profile in Courage Award, with a commendation for her “consistent and courageous voice in defense of democracy.”
Her memoir, Oath and Honor, is her side of the story concerning her stance against Trump, in which she presents herself as a defender of democracy, something Democrats tend to believe about her, while Republicans say is a case of someone who appears too egocentric to be self-aware.
Her appearance is a risk for the university, both financially and in reputation management. But it fits with the liberal track the university is on.
The dean of the UAA College of Arts and Sciences is Jennifer McNulty, a registered Democrat. She books Democrats and leftists in general for the speaker series.
Speakers from the fall segment of the lecture series included NPR host Melissa Block and Seth Kantner, an author who lives in Kotzebue and who is a registered Democrat.
Another speaker was Patrick Flynn Sullivan, an ecologist and researcher with the university who signed the recall petition in 2019 to try to remove Gov. Mike Dunleavy, right after he became governor.
A speaker in the series from earlier this year was Mr. Whitekeys, an Alaska political and musical performer whose real name is Douglas Haggar. On stage he generally lampoons Republicans. He also signed the recall petition in 2019 to remove Gov. Dunleavy.
Gov. Dunleavy has the veto pen for the entire university system, and in 2025, there may be a need to trim the sails of a university that believes Liz Cheney brings any value at all to the Alaska intellectual ecosystem.
People pay to hear this crap?
She and her Dad cost our nation trillions and thousands of dead GIs fighting for corporations like Black Rock and the Biden family Burisma, amongst others.
Why isn’t she in prison?
Amen
All Alaskans pay for Liz Cheney whether we attend this event or not! This very substandard, below mediocre state university, is subsidized to the tune of $300 million General Fund, and the General Fund is now mostly funded by what would otherwise be a statutory PFD were state revenues adequate to meet ongoing state expenses (which likely could be the case if NS oil production was north of 1 million barrels). Now that colleges and universities superior in every respect to UA offer degrees entirely by webinar there is no valid reason for state government to subsidize, nor even a reason to have, UA. The UA President’s residence, auto, travel budget and salary are very likely over $1 million a year. Now we see we are paying Liz Cheney $100,000 an hour for a canned talk! And this is with a Republican governor in charge of the University! Effing obscene!
That’s the best they can do? Liz Cheney??? Lost her election on WY by a very huge margin. Really?? Waste of $$!
Liz Cheney. Hard core liberal. That’s laughable.
Add ‘lying’ to liberal for more accuracy. She s no conservative but tried to pretend to b one o get elected.
But of course the socialists at the University of Alaska Anchorage have invited Loser Liz to speak. R-e-e-e-! Donald Trump, Donald Trump, D-o-n-a-l-d TRUMP! Exactly how long can she got on with that line of discussion before even the rabid Trump-hating crowd at UAA gets bored? Who knows, maybe she can have Lisa appear on stage with her?
Her father got us into huge conflicts in the Middle East, costing taxpayers huge amounts of money. Dick Cheney is a worthless globalist and former draft dodger. Daughter Liz is a total nut job and lunatic. I might go to UAA and carry a huge sign telling Liz…..”Go Back to Your Undisclosed Bunker.”
Anyone else game to attend with me?
LOL….LOL ….If there’s one thing that makes Democrats appear even a little bit normal, it’s parading around an unhinged, bonafide mentality insane Republican. This little exercise is meant only to give the Democrats a teeny bit of validity and a few good times for their meager scrapbook.
🤣
Otherwise, it’s just another one of their depressing sh*shows.
Please have Liz Cheney stop by my office when she arrives Anchorage. I would clinically assess her at no charge. I’d even pay her for an exam.
Dr., would you mind if we dropped off Lisa at the same time you are examining Liz?
No problem, Frank. BTW, when was your last exam?
Will Liz show up to UAA campus in a Tesla?
The current Governor has appointed most of the members of the Board of Regents of the University.
I checked a bit further; he has appointed all of them. He owns this.
The university will claim they are being “bipartisan” in hosting Liz Cheney since she claims to be a Constitution loving Republican. Princess Lisa will likely make sure to bring a crowd to support her fellow Democrat-in-hiding. Were we not several hours from Anchorage we would go to show our disgust outside the venue.
The state is paying what to support UAA? 800 million? If this is what UAA is promoting, all state funding should end immediately.
Agreed.
Reduce next year’s budget by at least $165k
Liz Cheney is a proper conservative and I can respect that. Her refusal to enter the MAGA cult is commendable, and even as a left-leaning person, I could in fact, vote for her. She’s one of the very few who haven’t sold their souls to a convicted felon out of fear of being bullied and intimidated by him. And for all of you who have, you, like everyone else who associates themselves with Donald J Trump, will not come away unscathed.
What have you been smoking?
Just you speaking up for her you, whidbey, says volumes. She is corrupt. No question.
More rampant, unapologetic TDS. Three years, nine and a half more months. Can you hang in that long? Unstable and unhinged Democrats will have new chapters written about them in psychiatric journals. It’s a new era of insanity.
Absolute nonsense. Never type again.
Yeah, yeah proper conservatives like Kelly Merrick and Cathy Giessel! Sure sure! You mean weaselly progressives to chicken to admit it and instead putting a “R” behind their name?
Sadly WTD the “cult” you so often refer to is the really group of “saving our democracy” decrying progressives condoning or perpetrating fire bombings, destruction of property, vile threats, lawfare and demanding to reinstate waste fraud and abuse(aka “the gravy train”).
The irony here is, all of that is clearly not in keeping with any of our democratic principles established in our constitution.
I look forward to the UA regents would be advising that opposing viewpoints will be presented by speakers at any UA facility however I’m not holding my breath!
You will die holding your breath waiting for an opposing (conservative) viewpoint being heard at any U of A facility,
So Cheney and her father consider Trump a threat to “democracy?” Methinks she misspoke. Trump is actually a threat to the pathetic Republican status quo! (Let’s just call this spade a freaking shovel!)
Only question for Cheney is this: Why did you need and accept a presidential pardon? Cheers –
Agreed
Of all the choices in the world today UAA picks a first class loser. She was rejected by the people in her home State of Wyoming by the widest margin in that state’s history. Just what I want my tax dollars going to. Another good reason to cut monies going to UAA. Betcha murkowski will be on the front row…just saying.
She should be required to confess her crimes as co-chair of the House Jan 6 Committee in order to officially receive that brandon pardon. Does anyone think this upcoming payoff – oops, I meant speaking engagement – will include any such admission?
Her old man is worth $500 million why is she bothering with a $160 G speaking engagement exactly?? Cost her $50 g to get the family jet up and back to whyoming. Something stinks .
When she sold her soul, she should have negotiated a better price.
I am sure Murkowski had something to do with this. She wants all her cronies to come destroy out state. Cut the funding for this leftist college ASAP.
I’m sure the University of Alaska will be hosting someone with opposing views as well, correct? Perhaps someone who has a modicum of intelligence, loves America, hasn’t sold their soul, and speaks honestly.
Ha hahahahahahaaaaaassaa Suzanne ma’am how funny you a comedian also pay to see filth like that. ALASKA IS TRUMP COUNTRY NOT TRAMP COUNTRY WE HAVE ENOUGH FAKE TRAMPS.
Best line in this oped, “Republicans say [she] is a case of someone who appears too egocentric to be self-aware.”
Too egocentric to be self-aware… That’s pure hypocrisy gold right there.
I would go and peacefully protest (a nice democratic tradition) but I have better things to do with my time and spending $75 to sit in the back with a sign that reads: “Destroying files isn’t democratic” seems like a waste of money. If UAA had invited Ben Shapiro to debate with Liz Cheney, I would pay to see that though!
So I guess I’ll pass and encourage the Governor to veto funding for the university system.
Liz Cheney, like most of the democrats, determined that crapping on your constituents was a winning strategy. So long as the fix was in, that mostly worked out for them. Now that we are rooting out the illegal operations, maybe not so much. Liz was a liar and a cheater, and now she’s just pathetic.
Cheney coming on May 1- Communist Day! How appropriate…Maybe she can go wildlife viewing at Katmai with her war monger father.
WtDog -Representative of department of delusions. Devoid of reality. Lol-left leaning? You are falling off the left edge.
“Not come away unscathed”- Are you threatening people?
Stupid UAA.. She is under a criminal investigation and the idiot Arts groups is is wasting education dollars on that political figure. Wasteful and useless use of university budget money.
Uni-Party won’t go without a fight they have to (in deep dodoo). We’re seeing how bad is the swamp when Justice comes out they tend to show themselves. Corrupt judges are giving themselves out. Congress act and defund the corrupt courts.
Look at those ticket prices. Does Liz think she is, Taylor Swift? I don’t anticipate a sold out show.
Sounds like a certain canine might be rabid, and needs to be tested for that
Liz is just her father in drag, only without his financial talents but with all the same desire for war
I am searching for a suitable analogy…
Okay, got it. The UAA’s invitation to Liz Cheney (Joe and Kamala’s bestie) to come to the Great Land from wherever she hides out in Wyoming and speak at the Atwood is like Harvard University inviting Benedict Arnold to return in 1790 from Britain to speak at Massachusetts Hall. Masochistic and pathetic.
A Lisa Murky Murkowski clone. 🤡
She’d be worthy of a dozen rotten eggs somewhere along her journey.
Liz Chaneys conservative credentials and voting record are bonafide. Her only action that causes all this vitrine is her standing up to Trump and accurately characterizing January 6. Think about that. You all don’t care how conservative someone is, you don’t care about their policies or how they vote. You only care if they are a Trump bootlicker or not. Chaney knowingly sacrificed her political career to do the right thing. She is a profile in courage. Have any of you even read her book?
You apparently didn’t read her book either. It’s Cheney. With an e.
Gee. I was thinking of taking some coursework there. Not now. I won’t go to any institution (with my money) that would have this evil, lying individual on their speaking rolls. What are they hoping to hear? Defund these jerks and their apparently substandard, leftist university.
U of A and most universities are run by leftists and hypocrites, except for a small percent of good folks doing the right things for the right reasons.
If you want to see some fools, go to the Cheney event, it’s going to be full of them!
Governor! Take control of UAA. You are embarrassing us. Do it now!