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Liz Cheney's Concession Call Story Following Her Primary Beatdown Just Crashed and Burned

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  August 18, 2022 6:00 AM

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) could have been in Congress for life, leaving when she felt it was time to leave her post. The woman could pen the closing chapter on her career in public life on her terms but decided to wage a destructive war against Donald Trump and his base, which happens to be the Republican Party writ large. Cheney’s tumultuous campaign of self-destruction culminated with her brutal pummeling at the polls on August 16. There hasn’t been a slaughter this devastating out West since Custer’s Seventh Calvary got wiped out at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. 

Cheney lost to challenger Harriet Hageman by nearly 38 points. The incumbent Republican congresswoman who garnered at least 60 percent of the vote in past elections couldn’t muster a 29 percent showing in Wyoming in 2022. Fighting Donald Trump was not part of the job description, Liz. 

She hurled insults at her constituents, only spoke to liberals when she did return to the state for town halls, and even leaned on Democrats to try and bail her out with those sad flyers urging liberals to switch parties in a Hail Mary attempt to save her career. Even the state’s Democratic Party chair knew that was a fool’s errand; there aren’t enough Democrats in the state. The revelation of those flyers was one of the many signs that Cheney’s people knew the end was coming, especially with the congresswoman’s work on the House Select Committee on January 6.

Now, regarding Cheney’s concession to Harriet Hageman, she couldn’t even manage that properly. There was no call but a voicemail—which Cheney’s camp says refutes what Hageman said on Hannity on the night of her victory. Politico obtained a copy of the Cheney voicemail (via Politico):

After Donald Trump-backed Harriet Hageman claimed Wednesday night that Rep. Liz Cheney never fully conceded their Wyoming GOP primary race, the defeated incumbent released her receipts.

Hageman told Fox News that Cheney had “left a very brief two second message on my cell phone” Tuesday night, without addressing “any kind of concession or anything else.” According to audio provided by the Cheney campaign to POLITICO, however, Cheney called Hageman to concede the race at 8:13 p.m. on Tuesday night.

[…]

Audible in the recording is an aide notifying Cheney that the Associated Press had just called the race for her opponent.

“Howdy, Harriet, it is Liz Cheney calling,” Cheney is heard saying in the audio. “It is about 8:13 on Tuesday the 16th, I’m calling to concede the election and congratulate you on the win. Thanks.”

The recording contradicts the narrative Hageman offered host Sean Hannity on Wednesday about Cheney’s call on primary night.

“I haven’t had any other contact with Liz Cheney. She made the one effort and all she said was ‘Hello Harriet.’ And then that was the end of it,” Hageman said. When Hannity sought to clarify that she was alleging Cheney had “just said ‘Hello Harriet’ and then hung up,” Hageman reiterated: “That was the end of the call, yes.”

Does anyone here see what’s being refuted because all I see is the Cheney camp grossly misreading what Hageman said, just like how they misread the move to go to war with the Republican base over Trump? Cheney conceded in the voicemail, but that’s not what soon-to-be-Congresswoman Hageman said. There was no contact. That’s true. Because there was no contact, there was no discussion. Also, true. Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist aptly noted it’s “absolutely fascinating how often audio that Cheney is somewhat uniquely privy to gets leaked for political gain to uncritical and compliant reporters. She and her staff seem to have patterns of oddly recording and leaking things.”

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Hageman fired back with a copy of what Liz sent their side on election night. 

The fiasco over a concession speech is peak Cheney, whose months-long self-sabotage addiction led to this humiliating defeat. She always found a way to do the wrong thing, say the wrong words, and pick the worst political decisions in her final miserable term. Screwing up the concession is par for the course. 

She had to get up on stage to address the ten people at her sad little election night party and declare herself to be the new Abraham Lincoln that the Republican Party needs in 2022.