Rep. Liz Cheney.Photo: Tom Williams/getty
Rep.Liz Cheneyhas reportedly received “a stream of death threats” since she joined a small group of Republican lawmakers in voting to impeach former PresidentDonald Trumpearlier this year, according to a new report.
A recentNew York Timesstoryabout Cheney’s ostracism within the Republican Party reveals that her campaign paid $58,000 for individual security detail between January and March as a result of the threats.
Cheney - the 54-year-old daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney - has become an unlikely “outcast” within the GOP party since her impeachment vote, according to theTimes.
The Wyoming lawmaker was previously the No. 3-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives until mid-May, when her GOP colleaguesvotedher out of her leadership roles over her vote to impeach Trump, 75.
Cheney was one of nine Republican lawmakers to vote in favor of impeaching the former president over his role in thedeadly Jan.6 attackat the U.S. Capitol.
Trump’s direct criticism of her in the months since has reportedly led to death threats, theTimesfeature story on Cheney says.
Amid the former president’s criticism, Cheney’s campaign hired three former Secret Service members, according to theTimes. Capitol police even took what the newspaper called an “unusual measure” of giving her Capitol police protection, a protocol typically reserved for congressional lawmakers holding leadership positions.
PEOPLE confirmed the security payments through publicly available filings with the Federal Election Commission, but Cheney’s office would not comment when reached Monday.
“We don’t comment on security,” Cheney’s spokesperson Jeremy Adler said.
TheTimesdescribed Cheney as having a “fortress aura” of security around her since the threats began, “reminiscent of the ‘secure undisclosed location’ of her father in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks.”
Liz Cheney.Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty
Since Trump began lobbing attacks at Cheney and other GOP lawmakers since their impeachment vote, the Wyoming representative has not appeared to flinch at the backlash.
Cheney told reporters moments after her GOP colleagues ousted her from her leadership positions that “we must go forward based on truth” and “we cannot both embrace the ‘big lie’ " that Trump has continued to push about his 2020 election loss to PresidentJoe Biden.
“The nation needs a strong Republican Party, the nation needs a party that is based upon fundamental principles of conservatism,” she said. “And I am committed and dedicated to ensuring that that’s how this party goes forward and I plan to lead the fight to do that.”
Cheney has said she’ll do “whatever it takes” to make sure Trump doesn’t win the presidency again in 2024, if he runs.
That includes a potential challenge from Cheney herself, who hasn’t ruled out her own 2024 run for the White House.
“I’m going to do everything that I can,” Cheney told theTodayshow last month, adding, “I won’t let a former president or anyone else unravel the democracy - whatever it takes.”
source: people.com
