Former President Donald Trump lashed out at one of his favorite targets, U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, during a rally in Arizona over the weekend, claiming her approval rating is at 16%.
Trump held a rally on Saturday and railed against various political foes, touching on both Cheney and the committee investigating the Capitol invasion of Jan. 6, 2021, on which she serves as vice-chair.
“Now the radical Democrats have yet another witch hunt no different from Russia, Russia, Russia, the ‘unselect’ committee of political hacks,” he said. “They’re Democratic hacks and they’re vicious and every one of them voted to impeach me.”
Without citing a source, Trump claimed Cheney has an approval rating of 16%. SoCo Strategies said a poll it conducted in December showed support for Cheney among 18.8% of those questioned, compared to 38.6% who supported Harriet Hageman, who has won Trump’s endorsement in her bid to unseat Cheney.
Trump also attacked U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger during the rally, the only other Republican serving on the committee.
Trump’s Arizona rally was originally scheduled for Jan. 6, but was rescheduled after the former president was criticized for holding a rally on the one-year anniversary of the attack.
Cheney’s committee has interviewed dozens of sources about the events leading up to and surrounding the day of Jan. 6, 2021, when rioters stormed the Capitol as Congress was finalizing presidential election results that would showed President Joe Biden to be the victor over Trump.
Since the election, Trump has regularly claimed that it was “stolen” from him, although no evidence has been substantiated.
Last week, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, said he would not cooperate with a request from the committee to voluntarily provide information about the incident, including details about Trump’s state of mind both during the Capitol attack and in the weeks after.
“As a representative and the leader of the minority party, it is with neither regret nor satisfaction that I have concluded to not participate with this select committee’s abuse of power that stains this institution today and will harm it going forward,” he said in a statement.
Cheney, however, said that this meant McCarthy was “clearly trying to cover up” what happened during the invasion.
“I wish that he were a brave and honorable man,” she told CNN late Wednesday. “He’s clearly trying to cover up what happened. He has an obligation to come forward and we’ll get to the truth.”
The committee asked McCarthy to discuss conversations he had with Trump before, during and after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
