Liz Cheney Continues Her Break with GOP and Pushes Back Against Trump’s Bogus Election Fraud Claims

Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) pushed back against former President Donald Trump’s falsehoods about the 2020 general election after Trump issued a statement this morning, more than three months after President Joe Biden took office, calling Biden’s victory “the big lie.”

“The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE!” Trump said in the statement.

Cheney responded shortly afterward with a statement of her own affirming that the 2020 general election “was not stolen.”

“Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system,” she wrote.

The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.

— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) May 3, 2021

Cheney was one of a handful of Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting an insurrection against Congress. The Wyoming Republican Party later voted to censure her.

Cheney said President Trump “lit the flame” of the attack. “There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution,” she said in a statement in January.

In recent days, she has made headlines for breaking with Republican leadership to support a 9/11-style commission into the Capitol riot of January 6, which took place after a mob of Trump’s supporters stormed the United States Capitol to try and overturn the results of the 2020 general election.

“What happened on Jan. 6 is unprecedented in our history. And I think that it’s very important that the commission be able to focus on that,” Cheney said in remarks during a Republican gathering in Florida.

“I’m very concerned, as all my colleagues are, about the violence that we saw, the BLM, the antifa violence last summer. I think that’s a different set of issues, a different set of problems, and a different set of solutions,” she continued. “And so I think it’s very important that the Jan. 6 commission stays focused on what happened on Jan. 6, and what led to that day.”

Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.