Wyoming GOP Rep. Liz Cheney used a recent donor retreat to once again lambast former President Trump over the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot by a mob of his supporters in which she said his actions were “a line that cannot be crossed.”
She also called Trump’s repeated unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, leading to his loss in the 2020 election, a “poison.”
“We can’t embrace the notion the election is stolen. It’s a poison in the bloodstream of our democracy,” Cheney reportedly said at a retreat in Georgia on Monday for the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, according to CNN, citing two people in the room.
“We can’t whitewash what happened on January 6 or perpetuate Trump’s big lie. It is a threat to democracy. What he did on January 6 is a line that cannot be crossed,” Cheney added.
Cheney made the comments during an off-the-record interview with former House Speaker Paul Ryan at the retreat, according to CNN. Ryan had also been a target of Trump’s during the 2016 election and until Ryan left Congress in 2019.
Cheney also publicly slammed Trump on Monday morning for his repeated false claims that the election was stolen.
“The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system,” Cheney wrote on Twitter.
The tweet was in response to a statement from Trump earlier that morning, in which he said “The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE!”
Attention in Washington is now fixated on Cheney as she navigates her party, which is becoming increasingly opposed to her anti-Trump stance.
While Cheney easily survived an attempt by Trump allies to oust her from her House leadership position for voting to impeach Trump, some GOP colleagues who rallied to her defense are now saying that it’s only a matter of time before she is pushed out of her post.
One GOP lawmaker said circumstances are “at a boiling point.”
Top allies of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) are vowing to remove Cheney from her position as House Republican Conference chair by the end of the month.
The heightened tension comes after a headline-grabbing week for Cheney.
Cheney said McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are the leaders of the Republican party, not Donald Trump, and said she is not ruling out a future run for the White House.
Last week, Cheney was captured on video fist-bumping President Biden as he made his way through the House chamber to deliver his first joint address to Congress.