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| Photo Credit: AP. |
Former President Donald Trump’s long standing critic Rep. Liz Cheney lost her bid to win reelection to US House in the Wyoming GOP primary election Tuesday. Cheney, the vice chair of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021 Capitol Hill riot lost to Trump’s endorsed candidate Harriet Hageman.
Cheney seeks political future outside Capitol Hill after defeat
Cheney who
is looking for a political future outside Capitol Hill repeatedly lashed out at
Trump’s bid to overturn his defeat by President Joe Biden in the 2020 elections
which the former President said was characterized by widespread voter fraud.
Cheney may be considering a run for the White House in 2024 which could lead to
increased tension with her longtime adversary, according to reports.
Addressing
her supporters along with her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, Cheney
said her loss was the beginning of a new chapter in her political career, The
Associated Press reports.
“Our work is
far from over,” she said Tuesday evening, evoking Abraham Lincoln, who also
lost congressional elections before ascending to the presidency and preserving
the union, according to The Associated Press.
"Today,
as we meet here, there are Republican candidates for governor who deny the
outcome of the 2020 election, and who may refuse to certify future elections if
they oppose the results," Cheney said, according to Washington Times.
"We have candidates for secretary of state who may refuse to report the
actual results of the popular vote in future elections. And we have candidates
for Congress, including here in Wyoming, who refuse to acknowledge that Joe
Biden won the 2020 election and suggest that states decertify their results.
Our nation is barreling once again towards crisis, lawlessness, and violence.
No American should support election deniers for any position of genuine
responsibility where their refusal to follow the rule of law will corrupt our
future."
Cheney lost
by a 30-point margin, an indication that Donald Trump still holds sway in the Republican
Party despite the damaging impact of the January 6 panel.
Cheney vows to continue fight against Trump's White House bid
“I have said
since Jan. 6 that I will do whatever it takes to ensure Donald Trump is never
again anywhere near the Oval Office — and I mean it,” she said, according to The
Associated Press.
As Cheney
delivered her losing speech, Hageman told his supporters who gathered at a
sprawling outdoor rodeo and Western culture festival in Cheyenne, several
wearing cowboy boots, hats and blue jeans that they should be grateful to Trump,
The Associated Press reported.
“Obviously
we’re all very grateful to President Trump, who recognizes that Wyoming has
only one congressional representative and we have to make it count,” said Hageman,
a ranching industry attorney, according to The Associated Press.
Hageman had
peddled Trump’s conspiracy theories about the 2020 elections, saying the
elections were fraught with widespread voter fraud and was “rigged,” a key
condition for the former president’s endorsement.
Trump mocks Cheney after defeat
Trump
lambasted Cheney’s defeat suggesting that the results were “a complete rebuke”
of the January 6 committee.
“Liz Cheney
should be ashamed of herself, the way she acted, and her spiteful,
sanctimonious words and actions towards others,” he wrote on his social media
platform, according to the Associated Press. “Now she can finally disappear
into the depths of political oblivion where, I am sure, she will be much
happier than she is right now. Thank you WYOMING!”