Liz’s last stand?

Donald Trump is taking his old friend Steve Bannon's advice and flooding the zone with disinformation in the wake of the FBI search of his resort home. His shifting excuses for how highly classified documents ended up at Mar-a-Lago show that he’s worried. And with good reason. Despite his apparent belief that he is above the law, he appears to be in some serious legal jeopardy. But Trump is still Trump, so of course he's making dire predictions about “terrible things happening” if the long arm of the law nabs him at last. In fairness, he's probably not wrong. We already saw what his most fervent supporters will do in support of the ex-president and his multitudinous lies on Jan. 6, 2021. Now, they're calling for “civil war” and actively threatening federal law enforcement officers. It's a depressing state of affairs, and one that could largely have been avoided if more leaders had chosen, like Rep. Liz Cheney, to put country over party. Cheney will likely pay dearly for her principled stand in the Wyoming primary election today. But either way, her term isn’t over yet, and if Trump is ultimately held accountable, she will be remembered for the brave role she played in making that happen. —Miles Taylor, Co-CEO, Forward Party

• Biden signs Inflation Reduction Act —The Guardian

• Trump passports taken in FBI search of Mar-a-Lago returned to former president —CBS News

• Florida judge to hold hearing Thursday on request to unseal Mar-a-Lago affidavit —CNN

• Justice Department subpoenas former Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann —Politico

• Giuliani’s lawyers told he’s a target of Ga. election probe —Associated Press

• Judge rejects Graham’s request to squash subpoena in Ga. probe of efforts to overturn 2020 election —The Washington Post

• Trump executive nears plea deal with Manhattan prosecutors —The New York Times

• Russia says 'no need' to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine —Reuters

• Bureau of Reclamation demands water cuts as Colorado River hits dire lows —The Washington Post

• First Lady Jill Biden tests positive for COVID-19 —NPR

Decision Day in Wyoming 

This is probably the last place Liz Cheney expected to find herself as recently as 20 months ago. Back then, she had, just a month earlier, coasted to re-election for Wyoming’s at-large congressional seat, with close to 70% of the vote, and she was third in House Republican leadership. Jan. 6, 2021, was still a month away, as was her fateful vote to impeach Donald Trump. Now, stripped of her role as conference chair and vilified throughout the party, Cheney isn't even expected to win her state’s Republican primary today. How did we get here?

• The face of anti-Trumpism. Despite her strongly conservative voting record and Republican pedigree, Cheney has been rebuffed by the state and national GOP for being the highest-profile Republican to reject Trump and his lies about the 2020 election. As vice-chair of the House select committee investigating last year’s attack on the U.S. Capitol, her national credibility has risen, but her popularity at home—one of the reddest states in the Union—has plummeted.

• Not backing down. Rather than step back, Cheney has leaned into her pro-democracy bona fides. “My opponents in Wyoming have said that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen,” she said in a campaign video. “No one who understands our nation's laws, no one with an honest, honorable, genuine commitment to our Constitution, would say that. It is a cancer that threatens our great republic. If we do not condemn these lies, if we do not hold those responsible to account, we will be excusing this conduct, and it will become a feature of all elections. America will never be the same.”

• A fighting chance? An Aug. 11 University of Wyoming poll shows Cheney losing by more than 30 points. Ouch. Her best and only shot at keeping her seat is the crossover vote, with early reports indicating that a significant number of Democratic and independent voters have changed their registration to vote in the GOP primary. These kinds of voters don’t typically show up in public opinion surveys, and the state’s largely rural population is notoriously difficult to survey as it is. Will it be enough? Stay tuned. —Roll Call

MORE: With new Alaska ballot, Murkowski may survive Trump’s wrath in primary —Roll Call

Violent threats follow search

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued an internal intelligence memo late Friday, warning of “an increase in violent threats posted on social media against federal officials and facilities, including a threat to place a so-called dirty bomb in front of FBI Headquarters and issuing general calls for 'civil war' and 'armed rebellion.'" The threats come in the wake of the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago, the Florida resort home of Donald Trump, for classified documents he allegedly stole. The agencies also have identified multiple calls for the targeted killing of judicial, law enforcement, and government officials associated with the search. —CBS News

MORE: Pennsylvania man charged with threatening to kill FBI personnel —The Hill

French: A movement built on intimidation

“[The Cincinnati FBI office] attack, the threats, and the violent rhetoric all happened without the perpetrators possessing any concrete knowledge of the underlying legal or evidentiary reasons for the FBI's search. The mere existence of the search was deemed sufficient reason for an instant, unified, volcanic right-wing response. And in the Trump era, pro-Trump threats and violence follow pro-Trump rage like night follows day.” —David French in The Atlantic

David French is an author, attorney, and Iraq War veteran who writes about law, politics, faith, and culture.

MORE: Mona Charen: Why are some Republicans rooting for civil war? —The Bismarck Tribune

Thomas: Let’s start calling a lie a lie

“Journalists are lumping all kinds of gaslighting, misinformation, disinformation, and lying into a bucket with an innocuous and playful label: Conspiracy theories. In the process, they excuse the deception of presidents and charlatans (along with presidents who are charlatans). … Why is the press willing to fact check picayune details of tax plans in real time during debates, yet we label flagrant fictions with direct consequences on real people as ‘theories?’ … Journalists have a duty to spotlight deceptions—especially lies that are elaborate, public, and persuasive. These are not conspiracy theories.” —Eric Thomas on Missouri Independent

Eric Thomas directs the Kansas Scholastic Press Association and teaches visual journalism and photojournalism at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

MORE: Tracing conspiracy culture throughout U.S. history with Sarah Kendzior —Grid

Focus on voting and elections 

A clear trend has emerged in this year’s primary elections. Across the battleground states that decided the 2020 vote—Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—candidates who deny the legitimacy of that election have claimed nearly two-thirds of Republican nominations for state and federal offices with authority over elections. Had those candidates held power in 2020, they would have been in a position to attempt something the current officeholders refused: overturning the vote and denying Joe Biden the presidency. So what does that mean for 2024? —The Washington Post

• Arizona. Mark Finchem, a member of the far-right Oath Keepers who participated in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, is the Republican candidate for secretary of state. If he defeats Democrat Adrian Fontes, a former county clerk of Maricopa County, in November, Finchem would be tasked with running the state's elections in 2024. As secretary of state, he’d also be second in line to the governorship. Kari Lake, another vocal election denier, is the Republican gubernatorial nominee. —CNN

• Pennsylvania. Another Jan. 6 participant, who incidentally has been subpoenaed by the House select committee, Doug Mastriano is the Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania. He has made it clear he would use many of the levers at his disposal to change voting rules he portrays as rife with corruption. He is expected to roll back mail-in voting, adopt harsher voter ID laws, and force voters to re-register. More concerning, he has said he could decertify all election machines in the state, and will likely reshape the secretary of state’s office—an appointed, not elected, position in Pennsylvania—to advance election-denying schemes. —Bolts Magazine

• Georgia, Michigan…or anywhere they want. In 2020, a team of computer experts directed by lawyers allied with Donald Trump copied sensitive data from election systems as part of a secretive, multistate effort to access voting equipment. The effort was even broader, more organized, and more successful than previously reported, but election officials at the local and state levels largely held the line. With election-deniers in office, the ability for such breaches to take place would become that much easier. And free, fair elections would become that much harder. —The Washington Post

MORE: Threats, stalking lead to election office resignation —Fredericksburg Standard

Eyoel: Saving democracy takes all of us

“As citizens and community members, each of us has a responsibility for engaging in the active work of strengthening and defending democracy. As Gabriel Marmenti, a young Brazilian democracy entrepreneur articulated, ‘I found a problem, and I just started doing something.’ The decline of democracy requires strategic action … [and] calls for time-tested and novel approaches.” —Yordanos Eyoel on The Fulcrum

Yordanos Eyoel is the founder of Keseb and a visiting fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University. 

MORE: New group aims to protect elections, encourage democratic principles —Arizona Republic

It is terribly disturbing that any American would continue to support anyone whose actions may meet the definition of espionage, and certainly meet the definitions of obstruction of justice and abuse of power. Watching the legal, moral, and political gymnastics being performed by Trump’s supporters just leads to despair. The Democrats offer such poor alternatives that 2024 looks like a Hobson’s choice. Creeping socialism comes from all directions. —Jim S., Texas

The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Renew America Foundation.