Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) on Monday lashed out at her own party, accusing House Republican leadership of having “enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-semitism.”
“History has taught us that what begins with words ends in far worse,” Cheney wrote on her personal Twitter account less than two days after Saturday’s racially motivated massacre at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. “@GOP leaders must renounce and reject these views and those who hold them.”
The House GOP leadership has enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-semitism. History has taught us that what begins with words ends in far worse. @GOP leaders must renounce and reject these views and those who hold them.
— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) May 16, 2022
According to the New York Post, Cheney’s tweet was likely alluding to the GOP leaders’ tolerance of two Republican lawmakers—Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona.
In February of this year, Greene delivered a keynote address at a conference that was hosted by noted white supremacist Nick Fuentes and was held opposite the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida. Greene later claimed she had not been aware of Fuentes’ views, which include Holocaust denial and defenses of segregation.
Similarly, Gosar attended Fuentes’ America First Political Action Committee last year and was later censured by the House and stripped of his committee assignments after he posted a video depicting himself as an anime character assassinating far-left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and attacking President Biden.
Cheney was removed from her position as House Republican Conference chair in favor of Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) a year ago after she repeatedly denounced former President Trump in the wake of the January 6 riot.
She and retiring Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger are the only two Republicans serving on the House select committee investigating the riot on Capitol Hill.
Trump has endorsed Cheney’s GOP challenger Harriet Hageman in the Wyoming primary.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Stefanik have not yet commented on Cheney’s post, but Stefanik released a statement Monday slamming the “disgraceful, dishonest, and dangerous media smears.”
— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) May 16, 2022
The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway said Cheney’s tweet was particularly “vile and disgusting” because she targeted Rep. Scalise, a victim of political violence in 2017.
“This leftist weaponization of racial division for political power against the multi-racial working class GOP is vile and disgusting — even if it were not being uttered to, among others, a man who survived an assassination attempt,” Hemingway tweeted. “Abhorrent and utterly disqualifying.”
This leftist weaponization of racial division for political power against the multi-racial working class GOP is vile and disgusting — even if it were not being uttered to, among others, a man who survived an assassination attempt. Abhorrent and utterly disqualifying. https://t.co/yIot1ZEC2E
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) May 16, 2022
Rep. Taylor-Green ripped Cheney for trafficking in the Democrats’ “divisive and dangerous lies” for political gain.
“Now the Dems make you tweet their divisive and dangerous lies, all so you can raise money from Democrat donors as you try to cling to your seat,” she tweeted. And you actually comply. How pathetic.”
Now the Dems make you tweet their divisive and dangerous lies, all so you can raise money from Democrat donors as you try to cling to your seat.
And you actually comply.
How pathetic. https://t.co/QNKn1KdDrq
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) May 16, 2022