Wednesday 17 August 2022 02:28 PM Cheney rips GOP after loss: Says Kevin McCarthy not up to the job, slams ... trends now
Rep. Liz Cheney tore into her soon-to-be-former colleagues on Wednesday in her first television interview after being defeated by Donald Trump-backed challenger Harriet Hageman.
She also blasted House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for aligning himself with Trump after the Capitol riot publicly after privately fuming about his role in the violence.
'I think what we have seen, not just in Wyoming but across the country, is that Donald Trump has betrayed Republican voters. He's lied to them. Those who support him have lied to them. And they're using people's patriotism against them. They're preying on people's patriotism,' Cheney said on NBC's Today Show.
'This is a great, a special, exceptional nation, and we need leaders who have reverence to our Constitution, are faithful to our Constitution, and will do what's required to abide by our oath no matter whether it's politically convenient. Kevin McCarthy does not fit that bill.'
The three-term congresswoman lost her seat as Wyoming's at-large House Representative on Tuesday night, with Republican voters there instead choosing Hageman to advance to the deep-red state's November midterm elections.
Cheney's rising star within the House GOP was derailed when she broke from her party to criticize Trump and ultimately voted to impeach him over the January 6 Capitol riot - which she took a lead role in investigating on the bipartisan House select committee.
For that work she had been censured by the Republican National Committee, renounced by the Wyoming GOP, and lost her role as the No. 3 leader in the House to pro-Trump Rep. Elise Stefanik.
Rep. Liz Cheney on Wednesday morning gave her first television interview since losing her seat as Wyoming's at-large House Representative the night before
It's also opened a lane for challengers like Hageman to make the case to voters that Cheney is more interested in building her national profile than representing the people of Wyoming - which voted for Trump by a larger margin than any other state in the 2020 election.
She said it would have been 'easy' to win had she toed the pro-Trump party line.
'It was clear how that path would go. But that path would have required that I accept, that I embrace, that I perpetuate the big lie,' the lawmaker said.
Cheney also appeared to take a shot at such Trump allies,
