Former President Donald Trump wasted no time blasting back at former congresswoman Liz Cheney after the lifelong Wyoming Republican campaigned for Vice President Kamala Harris this week.
“Liz Cheney is a stupid war hawk,” Trump told Fox News on Thursday, just hours after Cheney and Harris stood side by side at a campaign stop in Wisconsin. “All she wants to do is shoot missiles at people.”
The shocking sight of Cheney endorsing Harris in a small Midwestern city known as the birthplace of the Republican party continued to roil Trump supporters both near and far from Wyoming on Friday with dissenters online digging up old tweets and comments of Cheney’s criticizing Harris.
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, Cheney’s replacement in Congress, said the act showed that her predecessor had no “North Star.”
Trump predicted that the unexpected alliance between Cheney and Harris will turn out unfavorably for both women in the long run.
Cheney had joined Harris at a campaign event in Ripon, Wisconsin, where she told the audience to “reject the depraved cruelty of Donald Trump” and endorsed his Democratic opponent.
“I was a Republican even before Donald Trump started spray-tanning,” Cheney said early in her speech. She criticized Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot and said he “is not fit to lead” the country.
“What Jan. 6 shows us is that there is not an ounce of compassion in Donald Trump,” Cheney said. “He is petty, he is vindictive and he is cruel.”
In response, the former president also ripped Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, on his social media platform Truth Social that same day.
He described Dick Cheney as the “leader of our ridiculous journey into the Middle East, where Trillions of Dollars were spent, millions of people were killed — and for what? NOTHING!
“Today, these two fools, because the Republican Party no longer wants them, endorsed the most Liberal Senator in the U.S. Senate, further Left than even Pocahontas or Crazy Bernie Sanders - Lyin’ Kamala Harris,” Trump wrote. “What a pathetic couple that is, both suffering gravely from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Good Luck to them both!!!”
Trump’s claim has at least some validity as the Wyoming Republican Party declined to censure both at its meeting last month because it no longer views the Cheneys as Wyoming Republicans
Trump’s long-held animosity toward Cheney stems from her vocal criticism of his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, her vote to impeach him and her role as vice chair of the United States Select Committee on the Jan. 6 Attack.
Wyoming ‘Really Smart’
Trump also pointed out in his post that Cheney lost her reelection bid in 2022 to his endorsed candidate U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman by 38 percentage points, a result Trump commended, calling Wyoming voters “really smart.” He also claimed it was the largest loss for a sitting representative in the history of Congress but that’s not true. It was the third largest loss in the last 46 years.
Hageman told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday she's not surprised about Cheney campaigning for Harris.
“What people are seeing today is exactly why the people of Wyoming fired Liz Cheney as their Congresswoman," Hageman said. "Four years ago she correctly said that Kamala Harris was dangerously liberal, but today she is campaigning for her. She has no core values, no North Star, and she is supporting a candidate that no conservative would ever join up with. Maybe they can share memories on all of the forever wars they’ve both gotten America into.”
Poking The Hornet’s Nest
Less than a month before the November election, Democrats across the nation have increasingly invested in reaching across party lines to target Republican voters less than enthusiastic with Trump’s campaign and other candidates like him.
Many Republicans have criticized Cheney for this move and have speculated that she’s angling for a cabinet position in Harris’ office should she win the presidency.
Some on the left like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) have also expressed disgust about Harris’ support for Cheney.
“No elected official who cares about justice or the rule of law or human rights should ever praise Liz Cheney, a torture advocate, anti-Muslim bigot and warmonger who once refused to condemn racists spreading the Obama birther conspiracy,” said CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell in a Friday statement. “Supporting Trump’s impeachment does not wash away Rep. Cheney’s support for crimes like torture.”
Cheney has bridged much of her support for Harris around preventing Trump from getting in the Oval Office, but also praised the vice president for “working to unite reasonable people all across the political spectrum.”
It remains to be seen if the Republican endorsements for Harris will pay off in the election.
On Friday, Harris released a new ad featuring Cheney that will play in battleground states, according to The New York Times. The ad puts a focus on Republicans like Cheney who have announced their support for Harris.
In the ad, the Times reports that Cheney issues her support for Harris and says America is “standing at the breach in a critical moment in our nation’s history. We have a shared commitment as Americans to do what’s right for this country.”
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
