‘She Knows It Wasn’t Stolen’ But ‘Can’t Say That’: Liz Cheney Challenges Trump-Backed Opponent on Rigged Election Claim
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) debated her four GOP primary opponents on Thursday night in Sheridan, Wyoming, and called out Harriet Hageman for supporting former President Donald Trump’s allegations that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
“I think that there’s a real tragedy that’s occurring. And the tragedy is that there are politicians in this country, beginning with Donald Trump, who have lied to the American people and people have been betrayed,” Cheney said after her opening remarks during the debate.
“He consistently has said that the election was stolen when it wasn’t,” Cheney added before pivoting to the House Jan. 6 committee, which she is helping to lead.
“Our hearings, for example, predominantly made up of Republican witnesses, Republican witnesses from the former attorney general, the former deputy attorney general from the head of the Trump campaign, including one individual from New Jersey, Mr. Stepien, who’s now advising one of my opponents in this race, who said that he believes that the election was not stolen,” Cheney added, referring to Bill Stepien who is advising Hageman – Cheney’s main opponent who has been leading in the polls and is endorsed by Trump.
“In fact, he wanted to be part of ‘Team Normal,’ that those people who said the election was stolen were not part of team normal. So I’d be interested to know whether or not my opponent, Ms. Hageman, is willing to say here tonight that the election was not stolen?” Cheney questioned.
Hageman was not able to respond right away given the format of the debate, which had each of the five participants speaking in order of their position on the stage.
“She knows it wasn’t stolen. I think that she can’t say that it wasn’t stolen because she’s completely beholden to Donald Trump. And if she says it wasn’t stolen, he will not support her. So we’ve got to be honest, we have to be truthful. Elected officials in particular,” Cheney concluded, pulling no punches in calling out the price she believes Hageman is paying for Trump’s support.
When it came time for Hageman to next speak, she ignored Cheney’s comments entirely.
“Yeah, I think that this is an example of how the press and certain people have obsessed over January 6, because now we’ve had two questions in this debate and they’ve both been focused on that,” Hageman began, before she pivoted to local issues in Wyoming, noting, I’ve traveled over 30,000 miles around the state of Wyoming since I started this.”
Later in the debate, Hageman discussed “election integrity” and cited the debunked Dinesh D’Souza film 2000 Mules as “something we have great concern about in terms of use of the drop boxes.” 2000 Mules alleges that Democratic operatives, mules, were harvesting ballots during the 2020 elections and dropping them off at certain drop boxes to rig the election in Biden’s favor. The film’s evidence has been roundly refuted.
Watch the full clip above via PBS
