Former President Trump on Wednesday lashed out at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and former Vice President Mike Pence, blaming the three for failing to back his false claims about the 2020 presidential election.
Trump’s attacks on the three come as Cheney, the No. 3 Republican in the House, is on the outs with House Republican leadership over her repeated public rebukes of the former president’s unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent and stolen. He is reportedly backing Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) to replace her as House Republican Conference chair, but his latest statement makes no mention of Cheney’s plight within the GOP caucus.
“Warmonger Liz Cheney, who has virtually no support left in the Great State of Wyoming, continues to unknowingly and foolishly say that there was no Election Fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election when in fact, the evidence, including no Legislative approvals as demanded by the U.S. Constitution, shows the exact opposite,” Trump said in a statement.
Republican officials in states Trump narrowly lost, such as Arizona and Georgia, have repeatedly attested to the accuracy of the results there.
Still, the former president went on to attack Pence for refusing to reject certifications from multiple states on Jan. 6, the same day a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol and chanted calls for Pence to die.
Pence made his first public speech since leaving office last week, and he spoke warmly of his time in the Trump administration and working alongside the former president. He made no explicit mention of the Jan. 6 riot or of Trump’s repeated false claims about the election.
Trump also blasted McConnell, who after Jan. 6 denounced Trump’s rhetoric and blamed him for inciting the riot that day, calling the Senate GOP leader “gutless and clueless.”
The former president’s statement comes at a fractious time for the Republican Party in Congress as a small number of lawmakers, including Cheney, continue to speak out about Trump’s rhetoric about the 2020 election.
“The 2020 presidential election was not stolen,” Cheney tweeted Monday. “Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.”
Cheney, who voted to impeach Trump in January for inciting the Capitol riot, has faced growing calls to step down or be voted out of House GOP leadership for her repeated criticisms of the former president. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) acknowledged on Tuesday that party members were concerned with Cheney, and Stefanik has moved to consolidate support as a likely replacement.