Rep. Liz Cheney, once the No. 3 Republican in the House, warned of a “cult of personality” in the GOP around Donald Trump.
The Wyoming lawmaker has for months called on Republicans to denounce Trump’s unfounded claims of a stolen election in 2020, becoming further and further alienated from the Republican Party over the past year for her pointed criticisms of the former president.
REP. CHENEY ‘PERSONA NON GRATA’ IN WYOMING, SAYS GOP HOUSE PRIMARY RIVAL HAGEMAN
Cheney, one of 10 Republicans to vote for Trump’s second impeachment, was removed from House GOP leadership last year and then censured by the Republican National Committee in February for bucking party leaders to serve on the panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot.
“We have too many people now in the Republican Party who are not taking their responsibilities seriously and who have pledged their allegiance and loyalty to Donald Trump,” Cheney said in an interview with CBS News that will air Sunday. “I mean, it is fundamentally antithetical, it is contrary to everything conservatives believe, to embrace a personality cult.”
When asked if the Republican Party as a whole had become a “cult of personality,” she responded that “large segments of it have certainly become that.”
Cheney is running for reelection to Wyoming’s at-large district, a seat she has held since 2017. Trump, still angry over her impeachment vote, looks to unseat her. He’s endorsed attorney Harriet Hageman in the GOP primary and gave $500,000 to an outside group opposing Cheney.
The former president railed against Cheney at a rally in Casper, Wyoming, last weekend, calling her a “backstabbing RINO,” or “Republican in name only,” for serving on the predominantly Democratic Jan. 6 panel.
“Few members of Congress in history have personally caused more damage and destruction to our Republican Party,” Trump said Saturday. “She’s aided and abetted the radical Democrat Party in one of the most unhinged, lawless, and dangerous witch hunts of all time.”
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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (NY), who replaced Cheney as the No. 3 Republican in the House, made video appearances at the Hageman rally. GOP leaders view Cheney’s attacks on Trump as a distraction as the party sets its sights on retaking the House majority in 2022.
Though there’s not much in the way of independent polling in the Wyoming race, a survey by Club for Growth, which opposes Cheney, showed her trailing Hageman by 30 points in late May. The state is deeply Republican — Trump won 70% of the vote there in 2020 — meaning winning the Aug. 16 GOP primary is tantamount to winning the seat.
