Hageman: Cheney focused on Trump ‘obsession’ instead of Wyoming

by Rachel Scully - 08/17/22 9:35 AM ET

Associated Press/Mead Gruver
In this May 16, 2018, file photo, Harriet Hageman addresses a meeting of the Wyoming Business Alliance in Casper, Wyo. Former President Donald Trump has chosen Hageman, a favored candidate in his bid to unseat Rep. Liz Cheney, one of his most vocal critics. That’s according to a person familiar with his decision who spoke…

Wyoming House Republican nominee Harriet Hageman said the reason why she defeated Rep. Liz Cheney in the GOP primary on Tuesday was in part due to Cheney’s “obsession about President Trump” and lack of focus on Wyoming.

During an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham after her primary win in Wyoming, Hageman said that while she hasn’t spoken to Cheney since her defeat, she “wasn’t surprised” that Cheney vowed to keep Trump away from the White House in her concession speech, noting that it was “in large part what got her defeated.”

“I have not had an opportunity to even see or hear what she had to say because I’ve been kind of focused on what’s going on here,” Hageman told Ingraham. “It doesn’t surprise me that she would revert to those same old talking points, because that’s really in large part what got her defeated.”

“She’s not focusing on Wyoming,” she added. “She’s not focusing on our issues. She’s still focusing on an obsession about President Trump. And the citizens of Wyoming, the voters of Wyoming sent a very loud message tonight. We have spoken. And that is not what we are interested in in terms of our lone congressional representative.”

Hageman, an attorney and former Republican National Committee member endorsed by former President Trump last year, said that Wyoming “is entitled to have a representative that represents our interests, listens to us, that addresses our issues.”

“That isn’t Liz Cheney, and the fact that that’s where she went back to with her speech tonight I think demonstrates that she really isn’t listening to Wyoming now, she hasn’t for quite some time, and that’s why we needed to replace her,” she said. “We need to have a representative in Wyoming who listens to us.”

During Cheney’s concession speech, she vowed to do “whatever it takes” to keep the former president from office.

“Two years ago, I won this primary with 73 percent of the votes. I could easily have done the same again, the path was clear, but it would have required that I go along with President Trump’s lie about the 2020 election,” Cheney said.