OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene had words for outgoing Rep. Liz Cheney after the Wyoming Republican missed a key vote on a Democratic bill on Friday to fund police departments under certain conditions.
Most Republicans are opposed to the legislation because they say it imposes a number of ‘woke’ requirements on departments in order to receive the money, leaving Greene and other members of the party to designate it an “anti-police” measure.
But by failing to show up to vote, the dying piece of legislation was revived, leaving Greene and other Republicans to cast aspersions at Cheney, who was defeated in her August primary by Trump-supported attorney Harriet Hageman.
“Liz Cheney is so committed to Joe Biden and the Democrats that she just intentionally skipped an anti-police vote that Republicans could have defeated. She clearly supports the Democrat war on police,” Greene tweeted. “Go ahead and switch parties Liz before you’re out of office.”
.@Liz_Cheney is so committed to Joe Biden and the Democrats that she just intentionally skipped an anti-police vote that Republicans could have defeated.
She clearly supports the Democrat war on police.
Go ahead and switch parties Liz before you’re out of office.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) September 22, 2022
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) also got in on the criticism of Cheney, adding: “BREAKING: the House was one vote away from defeating a Democrat anti-police bill, but Liz Cheney couldn’t be bothered to show up to vote.”
BREAKING: the House was one vote away from defeating a Democrat anti-police bill, but Liz Cheney couldn’t be bothered to show up to vote.
— Rep. Lauren Boebert (@RepBoebert) September 22, 2022
Cheney was one of 10 Republicans to vote to impeach then-President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6 riot. She has frequently denounced him since and agreed to serve as co-chair of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s partisan Jan. 6 Committee along with another anti-Trump Republican, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who elected to retire after this term.
Shortly after her primary defeat, Cheney announced that she would support some Democrats for office.
“I’m going to be very focused on working to ensure that we do everything we can not elect election deniers,” she told ABC’s “This Week” last month.
“We’ve got election deniers that have been nominated for really important positions all across the country,” Cheney added. “I’m going to work against those people. I’m going to work to support their opponents.”
That said, the Republican National Committee in June put together a 10-minute montage of Democrats all denying Trump’s 2016 victory and its legitimacy.
MUST WATCH: 10 minutes of Democrats denying election results. pic.twitter.com/bJRbzEcIO2
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 23, 2022
Cheney also spoke to NBC’s “Today” show addressing her annihilation by Hageman before taking aim at Republican House Minority Leader and California Rep. Kevin McCarthy and others in the Republican Party.
“I think what we have seen, not just in Wyoming but across the country, is that Donald Trump has betrayed Republican voters. He’s lied to them. Those who support him have lied to them. And they’re using people’s patriotism against them. They’re preying on people’s patriotism,” she said.
“This is a great, a special, exceptional nation, and we need leaders who have reverence to our Constitution, are faithful to our Constitution, and will do what’s required to abide by our oath no matter whether it’s politically convenient. Kevin McCarthy does not fit that bill,” she said.
“It was clear how that path would go. But that path would have required that I accept, that I embrace, that I perpetuate the big lie,” the representative said to Savannah Guthrie. “I think that is a red line. I don’t think anybody should be supporting those people. Republicans shouldn’t be supporting them.”
“I think the Republican party today is in very bad shape, and I think that we have a tremendous amount of work to do,” she said, as she argued that the GOP has “embraced Donald Trump, embraced his cult of personality, is looking the other way as he continues to do things like put out the names of FBI agents.”
And then she defended the FBI and its raid on former President Trump’s house.
“Just in the last few days, when he knows that our law enforcement is the target of violence, put out the lies that he has put out in the last few days about what happened in the search warrant execution at Mar-a-Lago,” the representative said. “Every Republican, every American should reject those. And I certainly know there are millions of Republicans and Americans across this country who will.”
She was then asked point blank if she intended to campaign for president.
“That’s a decision I’m going to make in the coming months,” she said. “It is something I’m thinking about, and I’ll make a decision in the coming months.”
