‘We face a threat America has never seen before’: Liz Cheney lashes out at fellow Republicans who support Trump’s false election claims

Rep. Liz Cheney lashed out at leaders of her own Republican Party late Tuesday, accusing former President Trump and his GOP supporters of following a path that would “undermine our democracy.”

On the eve of a closed-door meeting when House Republicans seem certain to oust her from a leadership post because of her resistance to the former president’s false claims of fraud in the election he lost to Joe Biden, Cheney (R-Wyo.) took to the House floor to state her case.

“I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president’s crusade to undermine our democracy,” Cheney said.

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She did not mention party leaders by name. But House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) and Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) have called for her removal after she repeatedly rejected Trump’s false claim that he lost the November election due to widespread fraud, and for his role in encouraging supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 based on that falsehood.

“Today, we face a threat America has never seen before,” she told the nearly empty House chamber. “A former president who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol, in an effort to steal the election, has resumed his aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him. He risks inciting further violence.”

Top Republicans have asserted their chief objection has been that as No. 3 House GOP leader, Cheney should be focusing on messages that they believe would help the party win House control in next year’s election, not on disagreements about Trump and his falsehoods.