Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) compared former President Donald Trump's false claims surrounding the 2020 election to the rhetoric of the Chinese Communist Party, saying that the former president's language is "very dangerous and damaging."
Cheney said Monday on "The Axe Files" podcast:
When you listen to Donald Trump talk now, when you hear the language he's using now, it is essentially the same things that the Chinese Communist Party, for example, says about the United States and our democracy.
She said that Trump suggesting the electoral system is not representative of who the American people want as their leader is similar to what the CCP alleges about the U.S. when attempting to smear the country.
When he says that our system doesn't work … when he suggests that it's, you know, incapable of conveying the will of the people, you know, that somehow it’s failed — those are the same things that the Chinese government says about us. It's very dangerous and damaging … and it’s not true.
Cheney was removed from her House leadership position last month after repeatedly calling out Trump and his claims of a stolen 2020 election. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Cheney focusing on past remarks was a distraction from the GOP's efforts to move on and toward winning future elections, saying in a letter obtained by Fox News that "it’s clear that we need to make a change."
Upon her ousting, Cheney said she would "do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office."
Representative Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) took Cheney's place as House GOP Conference Chair.
Cheney was also critical of McCarthy during the podcast, saying that she was "stunned" he met with Trump in Mar-a-Lago following the Capitol riot on January 6.
I could not imagine any justification for doing that.
She said McCarthy's meeting with Trump was "inexcusable" and that the former president committed the "most dangerous" and "most egregious" violation of an oath of office of any president in U.S. history.
And so the idea that a few weeks after he did that, the leader of the Republicans in the House would be at Mar-a-Lago, essentially, you know, pleading with him to somehow come back into the fold, or whatever it was he was doing, to me was inexcusable.
McCarthy initially defended Cheney in her first leadership vote back in February following her vote to impeach Trump but their relationship deteriorated as Cheney's criticism of the former president and his influence on the Republican Party never let up. McCarthy and Trump were both in favor of Cheney’s removal and Stefanik taking her position.
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