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Trump OK With Billboards Showing Hageman Called Him A Racist; “She Never Met Me,” He Said

Published on in News/politics
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
20117

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By Ellen Fike, Cowboy State Daily

Former President Donald Trump was not bothered by the billboards bringing up past criticism of him by Harriet Hageman, the congressional candidate who now has endorsement, he said in a radio interview Wednesday.

Trump spoke with “Wake Up Wyoming” host Glenn Woods on Wednesday, addressing a variety of topics during a nearly 14-minute interview, from Hageman and her opponent, U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, to energy and his time in office.

Trump excused the Hageman comments posted on a billboard on the outskirts of Casper in advance of his appearance there at a rally on Saturday.

The comments were made before Hageman knew him, Trump said.

“When you go back to 2016, nobody knew me and at the time, she never met me and I never met her,” Trump said. “If I went by that standard, I could never endorse anybody.”

The billboards were placed there by Cheney campaign. One references a quote Hagemen gave to the New York Times in 2016, when she called Trump “the weakest” candidate in the 2016 Republican presidential primary, as well as labeling him “racist and xenophobic.” 

Trump noted similar remarks were made by author and Ohio congressional candidate J.D. Vance, who Trump also endorsed. Vance recently won the Republican primary in Ohio and will face off in the general election against Democrat U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, who has held the seat since 2013.

Trump said that Hageman stood out to him as the congressional candidate to support because of the uproar he heard from Wyoming citizens about her.

“I just felt that she was really good,” he said. “I had people in Wyoming…pushing much harder for her than anybody else and I have to let that play a role. Her campaign is very strong.”

Hageman announced her campaign against Cheney last fall, with Trump’s endorsement following almost immediately after.

Other candidates for Wyoming’s lone House seat include state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, R-Cheyenne, veteran and Gillette resident Denton Knapp and Sheridan resident Robyn Belinskey. As of Wednesday afternoon, Bouchard, Knapp and Belinskey were the only candidate to have formally filed for the office.

Trump also did not shy away from bashing his regular critic Cheney, with whom he has been locked in battle since she voted to impeach him following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The former president said Cheney was now congressional Democrats’ “biggest asset” and that she is now part of the “radical left.”

“The Republicans in the House, good people, some really tough people, people that you like and support,” Trump said, “they just can’t stand her. She’s just not been good.”

Prior to her vote to impeach Trump last year, Cheney voted with him more than 90% of the time.

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Trump Says Cheney Polling At 16% As Jan. 6 Committee Continues To Investigate

Published on in News
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By Ellen Fike, Cowboy State Daily

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.

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Cheney Opponent Smith Says Visit With Trump Went Well

Published on in Darin Smith/News
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By Jim Angell, Cowboy State Daily

One of the Wyoming Republican U.S. House to visit with former President Donald Trump this week said his meeting went well.

Cheyenne businessman Darin Smith, one of at least two primary challengers to U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney to meet with Trump, said he met with the former president in New Jersey on Tuesday.

“I think it went great,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “We discussed the election, the endorsement, and I gave him the pitch as to why I think we are the campaign to defeat Liz Cheney and take America back.”

Smith is the first candidate from the crowded Republican primary race to confirm he met with Trump, who has announced he will make an endorsement in the race in the next several months.

Trump has been critical of Cheney since she voted to impeach him in connection with the January assault on the Capitol. 

A spokeswoman for one of the other candidates, state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, R-Cheyenne, said last week that Smith and state Rep. Chuck Gray, R-Casper, were invited to meet with Trump in New Jersey. Gray’s campaign could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Prior to his meeting with Trump, Smith commissioned a survey by the Remington Research Group to gauge his support among likely Republican voters in 2022.

The telephone survey showed that of 766 voters polled, 70% would vote for Smith in a head-to-head race against Cheney, while 20% would vote for the incumbent.

“I told my guys I wanted to walk into Trump’s office with a legitimate poll,” Smith said. “That had to be fairly impressive for him to see (the results).”

The survey, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3%, also showed that when Gray and Bouchard are taken into consideration, Smith would win votes from 24% of those questioned, while Cheney would 19%, Bouchard wins 18% and Gray wins 14%, the release said.

Smith said the survey showed that if he wins Trump’s endorsement, “we blow out the field.”

On the same day Smith announced the results of his poll, Gray released the results of his own survey, which also showed him as the front-runner for the race.

According to the survey of 300 likely GOP voters conducted by McLaughlin and Associates, 63% of those questioned in telephone and text-to-web interviews would support Gray in a head-to-head match against Cheney, while 24% would vote for Cheney.

Gray’s survey, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 5.6%, showed that in a three-way race between Gray, Cheney and Smith, 25% of those questioned would vote for Gray, while 23% would vote for Cheney and 14% would vote for Smith.

Both surveys indicated that a majority of those questioned — more than 70% — have unfavorable opinions toward Cheney.

In their separate news releases, the two candidates said they were pleased with the results of their surveys.

“I am very encouraged by these polling results,” Smith said. “Liz Cheney is the only representation in Congress Wyoming has, and she has turned her back on us. It’s time to dump Liz and elect someone with genuine pro-Trump, America First, Wyoming values and I know I am that person.”

“It is very clear that Wyoming voters are looking for solid, conservative Trump supporter Chuck Gray to defeat Liz Cheney for Congress,” Gray’s news release said. “These voters want an active, aggressive and unified campaign for Trump supporter Chuck Gray to hold Liz Cheney accountable for her bad vote on impeachment and her current attacks on President Trump on the January 6th committee.”

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Cheney Compares Trump’s Election Claims to Chinese Community Party

Published on in News/Liz Cheney/politics
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By Ellen Fike, Cowboy State Daily

During a recent appearance on political analyst David Axelrod’s podcast, U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney compared former President Donald Trump’s remarks about election fraud to claims made by the Chinese Communist Party.

Cheney appeared on the latest episode of “The Axe Files,” which is hosted by Axelrod, a former senior advisor to President Barack Obama.

During her appearance, Axelrod asked if Cheney was uncomfortable with Trump’s claims about election fraud leading up to the attack on the U.S. Capitol in January.

“There were a number of occasions where I spoke out with respect to things like guaranteeing a peaceful transition of power even before we got to the election,” she said. “The other thing that occurs to me is when you listen to Donald Trump talk now, when you hear the language he is using now, it is the same things that the Chinese Community Party say about the United States and our democracy.”

She added that when Trump claims the nation’s democratic system is broken and incapable of conveying the word of the people, it is similar to propaganda spread by the CCP against the U.S.

Cheney and Axelrod noted that she voted with the former president 93% of the time he was in office, but she was not one to blindly follow his lead. She pointed out a time when she criticized Trump for siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he believed the Russian’s statements over reports by U.S. intelligence agencies.

The representative has also tried to explain to Wyoming voters the reasoning behind her vote to impeach Trump following the Capitol attack by comparing him to Obama.

“One of the ways I explained my vote to my constituents is ‘You need to imagine if it were Barack Obama doing these things, if it were Barack Obama had tried to steal the election, had been pressuring local democratic officials to change the results in defined votes,'” she said.

Cheney has received much blowback from her impeachment vote, even being removed from her position as House Republican Conference chair. Wyoming legislators Sen. Anthony Bouchard, R-Cheyenne, and Rep. Chuck Gray, R-Casper, announced their respective campaigns against Cheney for her House seat in response to her vote.

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Barrasso Votes to Certify Electoral College Decision

Published on in News/politics
8210

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By Jim Angell, Cowboy State Daily

While expressing disappointment with the outcome of November’s presidential election, U.S. Sen. John Barrasso voted Wednesday to certify the results of the Electoral College vote that put former Vice President Joe Biden in the Oval Office.

Barrasso said he felt the Constitution outlines a process by which the states, not Congress, elect a president.

“Our founders entrusted the election of our president to the people, acting through the Electoral College, and not Congress,” Barrasso said in a statement. “The founding fathers wisely wanted each state, including low-population states like Wyoming, to have their voices heard and votes counted. The Constitution and federal law are clear that the power of Congress is limited to counting electoral votes submitted by the states.”

Barrasso said his vote to certify the Electoral College results follows what the Constitution dictates.

“In Wyoming, we pride ourselves on being guardians of the Constitution,” he said. “We must maintain that commitment as we protect and defend our Constitutional freedoms.”

The question of certification for Electoral College votes has led to a divide among members of Wyoming’s congressional delegation.

While Barrasso voted to certify the votes, U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis joined 10 colleagues in vowing to object to certification unless an emergency audit is conducted in states where questions have been raised about the legality of votes cast.

U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney advised her fellow Republicans not to object to the Electoral College votes, voicing many of the same objections as Barrasso — primarily that if the objection stops certification of the votes, Congress will select the next president rather than the voters.

Barrasso said he has heard from people across Wyoming concerned about the outcome of the election and agreed that work needs to be done to fix improprieties in the election process.

“There is serious work that needs to be done to reform the election process and protect the integrity of ballots,” he said. “We should all be committed to that effort now.”

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Opinion: We’ll Walk Across Hot Coals to Re-elect Donald Trump

Published on in Dave Simpson/Column
2854

By Dave Simpson, Cowboy State Daily columnist

So, what have non-coastal, common-sense folks like us – odoriferous Walmart shoppers, wearers of hats with ear flaps,  purveyors of homespun wisdom – learned from the presidency of  Donald Trump?

What do we think out here in the Big Lonesome?

Some thoughts:

On his first day on the job, Trump should have fired everyone he could legally fire.

“Thanks for your service,” he should have said. “Good luck in your new careers as lobbyists, top-level hangers on, and screaming Trump critics on CNN and MSNBC. Don’t let the door hit you in the caboose on the way out.”

It would have caused chaos. The media would have screamed like mashed cats. Imagine getting along without the deputy undersecretary of the assistant to the administrator of the counsel on incredibly important affairs. But the festering boil would have been lanced.

Instead, Trump kept a lot of people in place, and many have proven to be knife-wielding scoundrels who were (and still are) itching to betray him. Did you ever think you’d see accounts of presidential phone calls to foreign leaders leaked to the press? I didn’t. Did you ever think an anonymous staff member would write an opinion piece for the New York Times, claiming to protect us from the dangerous man we stupidly elected president? I didn’t.

And some of these back stabbers are still on the payroll.

Saboteurs, even civil service saboteurs, can’t be tolerated. They have done terrible damage.

The guy who spent 15 years firing people on TV should be firing leakers in his administration.

We have also learned in the Trump years not to get in the way of Congress when it’s spending billions. (Borrowed billions.) All Trump did was delay sending $400 billion to the Ukraine, and ask some questions about corruption. Isn’t that a good thing?

But, it resulted in impeachment in the House and trial in the Senate. At a time when we’re already $23 TRILLION in debt.

We all know there are different rules for Democrats, who are the passionate love interests of the media, and Republicans, who are hated by the media. In Ukraine’s struggle with Russia, Obama sent blankets and meals ready to eat. Trump sent missiles. And Trump gets impeached for somehow abusing Ukraine. Go figure.

Joe Biden can be seen on video telling Ukrainians that $1 billion in U.S. aid would be held up unless they fired a prosecutor. We’ve all seen it. And yet, the adoring media says any suggestion that Biden did anything wrong is a “debunked conspiracy theory.” But, Trump gets impeached for maybe doing what we SAW Biden doing. (Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up.)

Does anyone remember the word “debunked” being used in reference to Obama’s lie that if we liked our doctors we could keep our doctors? How about that $2,500 he said we would save?

Why aren’t those promises dubbed debunked?

We have also learned that asking questions about corruption in Ukraine is off limits for Republicans. And questioning Joe Biden’s son making $50,000 a month, or maybe $83,000 a month, from a Ukrainian gas company is way out of line, and none of our business. So if your dad is running for president, any sweet deal you can come up with is nobody’s business. Move along folks, nothing to see here.

Say what you want in defense of the Bidens, but a guy making $50,000 a month, or maybe $83,000 a month, will never fly out here in Flyover Country.

(Fifty thousand a month would buy you one heck of a bass boat.)

Most stark of all, Barack Obama, who killed hundreds of terrorists with drone strikes, was a hero for giving the go-ahead to kill Bin Laden. But Trump’s decision to kill Iranian terrorist Gen. Qassem Soleimani was immediately dubbed an “assassination” by hysterical, hair-on-fire Democrats, who then passed a meaningless House resolution to limit Trump’s war powers.

Funny how that works.

Looks to me like there’s only one way to win this stacked-deck deal with the Democrats and their liberal media pals:

Flyover Country folks like us have to be ready to crawl over broken glass and hot coals to get to the polls in November.

Dave Simpson began his journalism career at the Laramie Boomerang in
1973. He has worked as a reporter, editor, publisher and columnist at
newspapers in Wyoming, Colorado, Illinois and Nebraska. He lives in
Cheyenne. Dave Simpson can be contacted at davesimpson145@hotmail.com

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Wyoming Attorney General Declines to Sign Letter Condemning Impeachment

Published on in News/politics
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By Ike Fredregill, Cowboy State Daily

Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill did not sign a letter condemning President Donald Trump’s impeachment because she wants to remain impartial in her role as an appointed public servant, she said.

“As an appointed, not elected, attorney general, it is important to me that I remain impartial in matters that may be viewed as political or having a political component,” Hill wrote in an email. “My position is not elected and is not based on a political campaign.”

Republican attorneys general from 21 states signed a letter sent to the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, which said the impeachment process “threatens all future elections and establishes a dangerous historical precedent.”

The new precedent set by the impeachment could erode the separation of powers between the nation’s legislative and executive branches, the letter opined.

Hill wrote that her duties as attorney general are to focus on legal matters alone, so she would not to join what may be seen as a politically motivated rebuke.

“In addition to actually remaining impartial, it is important that I maintain an appearance of impartiality so that the citizens of Wyoming know that my decisions are based on legal factors alone and not my personal political views,” Hill wrote.  “In this instance, the letter in question was only from Republican attorneys general and thus had the potential to create the appearance that it had a political component to it.”

Hill wrote her decision not to sign the letter is not a personal statement, nor an indicator of her stance on the impeachment.

“Nor should my not signing the letter be viewed as agreement or disagreement with the contents and legal points in the letter,” Hill wrote. “My decision was based solely on the potential for this letter to be viewed as me making a political statement, which as an appointed attorney general I refrain from making.”

Hill was joined by four other Republican attorneys general, who did not sign the letter from Arizona, Idaho, New Hampshire and North Dakota.

Attorneys General who signed the letter:
Alan Wilson, South Carolina
Jeff Landry, Louisiana
Sean Reyes, Utah
Steve Marshall, Alabama
Curtis Hill, Indiana
Kevin Clarkson, Alaska
Derek Schmidt, Kansas
Leslie Rutledge, Arkansas
Daniel Cameron, Kentucky
Ashley Moody, Florida
Douglas Peterson, Nebraska
Christopher M. Carr, Georgia
Lynn Fitch, Mississippi
Eric Schmitt, Missouri
Jason Ravsborg, South Dakota
Tim Fox, Montana
Herbert H. Slatery, III, Tennessee
Dave Yost, Ohio
Ken Paxton, Texas
Mike Hunter, Oklahoma
Patrick Morrisey, West Virginia

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