Liz Cheney uses January 6 committee revelations to refute Trump-backed primary challenger's false election claims in Wyoming debate
Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News and Natalie Behring/Getty Images
- Rep. Liz Cheney and her primary opponent, Harriet Hageman, debated for the first time on Thursday.
- Cheney took on Hageman's stolen 2020 election claims using her expertise from the January 6 committee.
- Cheney cited testimony from members of Trump's inner circle, including Ivanka Trump.
In her first debate against a raft of Republican primary opponents on Thursday night, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming took on her challengers' false claims that the 2020 election was stolen largely by drawing on findings she's helped uncover as a member of the House January 6 committee.
In a debate segment on election integrity, Cheney's main rival — former RNC committeewoman Harriet Hageman, who has the backing of former President Donald Trump and most of the House Republican conference that Cheney once led — cited Dinesh D'Souza's widely-debunked "2000 Mules movie."
Hageman went on to say that "Zuckerberg money" had allowed a "private individual to capture our county clerks" which was "devastating in our swing states."
Responding to Hageman's claims, Cheney touted her own support for voter ID laws while going on the attack.
"I also know that the truth matters, and the claims that Mrs. Hageman is making about the 2020 election are the same claims for which the President's lead lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was disbarred," said Cheney. "They're the same claims for which Sidney Powell has had her law license suspended."
While it is true that both Giuliani and Powell have faced sanctions for their involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 elections, Giuliani has only had his law license suspended, and Powell has faced court sanctions for filing frivolous lawsuits.
"It is not true that there was sufficient fraud to change the results of the 2020 election," said Cheney. "The President's own Attorney General has said that, the President's own Deputy Attorney General has said that — and I mean President Trump."
"President Trump's campaign manager said that, President Trump's White House counsel said that, President Trump's own family said that," she continued. "There was not sufficient fraud to overturn the results of the 2020 election."
In a series of public hearings in June, the January 6 committee showed testimony from former Attorney General Bill Barr stating that Trump's election claims are "bullshit," testimony from former campaign manager Bill Stepien that he "didn't think what was happening was honest or professional," and testimony from Ivanka Trump that she accepted Barr's conclusion that the election wasn't stolen.
"Now if Mrs. Hageman is standing up here claiming that the election was stolen, or that there was fraud that was sufficient to overturn the election, she ought to say it," said Cheney. "Otherwise, she needs to stop making claims that are not true, and she ought to tell the people of Wyoming the truth."
Cheney, the January 6 committee's vice chair, faces a high-stakes primary election on August 16. Recent polling has shown Hageman with a comfortable lead over Cheney.
—Acyn (@Acyn) July 1, 2022