Cheney blasts Scalise for refusing to say Biden legitimately won election

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) listens during a House Armed Services Committee on the conclusion of military operations in Afghanistan on September 29, 2021.
AFP/Pool

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) blasted House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) after he refused to say if he believed the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from former President Trump.

Earlier on Sunday, Scalise was pressed by “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace on whether he believed the 2020 election had legitimately been won by President Biden. Scalise refused to directly answer the question, repeatedly pointing to constitutional rules and states’ laws on elections.

“Millions of Americans have been sold a fraud that the election was stolen. Republicans have a duty to tell the American people that this is not true. Perpetuating the Big Lie is an attack on the core of our constitutional republic,” Cheney tweeted.

Cheney’s rejection of the so-called big lie has alienated her from much of the GOP. Last month, Cheney was named as vice chairwoman of the Jan. 6 select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol at the beginning of this year.

She previously slammed Trump for perpetuating claims of a stolen election, saying those who embrace such claims were “poisoning our democratic system.”

“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,” she tweeted back in May.

While appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Scalise repeatedly refused to respond to questioning about whether he believed the election was stolen. When Wallace said he took his side-stepped answers as an acceptance of the “big lie,” Scalise did not refute this assessment.

Scalise also refused to say whether he would vote to hold Trump advisers who resist subpoenas in contempt of Congress. Trump has reportedly told former aides to resist subpoenas from the Jan. 6 panel that Cheney sits on.

Tags big lie Chris Wallace Criticism of Donald Trump Donald Trump Joe Biden Liz Cheney Liz Cheney Republican Party Steve Scalise Steve Scalise United States presidential election

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