Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said she wishes that the chaos in the House GOP was “surprising” as she blamed ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for the tumult in the party Sunday.
“What we’ve seen is a result of really the leadership decisions that Kevin McCarthy made all the way back after the 2020 election – and certainly after January 6,” Cheney told CNN’s Jake Tapper after he asked about the House GOP “fiasco” on this weekend’s edition of “State of the Union.”
She continued: “And looking the other way in the face of the kind of assault on our democracy that we’ve seen from Donald Trump and his allies in the House, including Jim Jordan. Elevating those members, frankly, some of whom are white supremacists, some of whom are antisemitic, a number of whom were involved directly in the attempt to seize power and overturn the election.”
Cheney – who once criticized GOP leadership for enabling white nationalism – said it’s not a surprise to see those Republicans “empowered,” adding that “it’s really dangerous.”
Her takedown of House Republicans arrives after Rep. Jim Jordan’s (R-Ohio) speaker bid burned out after three failed votes on the House floor last week.
His attempts to win the speaker’s gavel occurred as the family members of Jordan holdouts received a number of threats via text and voicemail.
Republicans’ search to fill the speaker’s seat continues this week as they look for a candidate who would have to secure 217 votes from the 221-member House GOP conference.
Cheney, former vice chair of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, went on to note the extent to which political violence and threats have “reared their head once again,” declaring that it certainly never should have become part of the country’s politics.
Tapper later asked Cheney, a harsh critic of Donald Trump, if she traces the threats of violence to the former president.
“I think you certainly would have to trace it back – in its modern version – to Donald Trump,” she replied.
“And we now know, frankly, because of the lie, we know that the lie about the election, we know that telling people that they have to use violence in order to take back their country, we know that that lie was very effective in sparking violence. And it hasn’t stopped.”