Good morning. It is Saturday, August the 20th. I'm Ali Velshi. We're 80 days away from one of the most

consequential midterm elections in recent memory.

Most of the races are set.

Even though Donald Trump won't be on any ballot this year, his mark is everywhere.

Trump's big lie has become a core value of today's Republican Party.

Some of the insurrectionists whom he summoned to the Capitol

on January 6th are among this year's candidates for office and after FBI agents retrieved

boxes of classified documents from Mara Lago almost two weeks ago, even more Republicans

have rallied to his side. His vice grip on the party seemed to be further confirmed

this past week by the results of one of the highest profile Republican primary races of this

entire cycle on Tuesday. Congresswoman Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the January 6th committee,

the Republican Party's top critic of the twice impeached ex-president lost her re-election bid for

Wyoming's lone seat in the House of Representatives, and it was a blowout.

Cheney's been in office since 2017 during Wyoming's last Republican primary in 2020.

She won handily. Back then, she got more than 70% of the vote, but this time around,

she didn't crack 30% even with record turnout. More people cast a vote for Cheney's opponent,

Harriet Hageman this year, than participated in the entire Republican primary two years ago in 2020.

Cheney knows perfectly well why she lost, but her integrity and vow to uphold democracy would not allow her to have it any other way.

Two years ago, I won this primary with 73% of the vote. I could easily have done the same again. The path was clear.

But it would have required that I go along with President Trump's lie about the 2020 election.

It would have required that I enable his ongoing efforts to unravel our democratic system

and attack the foundations of

...