Liz Cheney and Donald Trump go to war over 'THE BIG LIE'

Rep. Liz Cheney on Monday issued a forceful rebuke of claims made by former President Donald Trump and his supporters that his loss in the 2020 election was the result of fraud.

Cheney’s message came shortly after Trump reiterated his unsubstantiated claim that his loss to President Biden in November was not legitimate.

“The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE!” Trump said Monday in a statement.

Trump’s baseless assertion that voter fraud cost him the 2020 election was at the heart of the Jan. 6 riot staged by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol. For months leading up to the election, Trump told the nation that an increase in the number of ballots cast by mail would result in a “rigged” result. The former president summoned his supporters to Washington for a rally to protest the certification of the Electoral College results, which ended with them storming the Capitol.

Cheney, R-Wyo., was the highest-ranking House Republican to vote to impeach Trump for “incitement of insurrection,” a decision that has cost her support among many of her GOP colleagues, some of whom are seeking to have her stripped of her leadership role.

While no credible evidence has been put forth to back up Trump’s claim that voter fraud explained his loss to Biden, the former president and many of his Republican supporters continue to push that notion. In states with Republican-led legislatures, a flurry of new voting restrictions have been introduced, and in some places adopted, which Democrats say are predicated on the bogus idea that fraud factored in to the 2020 election results.

In Arizona, Republicans in the state Senate have authorized a recount of ballots cast in Maricopa County, which Biden won by 45,000 votes, by a private firm whose chief executive has posted tweets supporting the conspiracy theory that fraud handed Biden the presidency. The audit will not undo the results of the election, however, and seems designed to cast further doubts about Biden’s victory.

Last week, Trump said he was paying close attention to the recount.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they found thousands and thousands and thousands of votes,” Trump said at his Florida country club. “So we’re going to watch that very closely. And after that, you’ll watch Pennsylvania and you’ll watch Georgia and you’re going to watch Michigan and Wisconsin. … Because this was a rigged election, everybody knows it.”

A new CNN poll found that 70 percent of Republicans believe that Biden did not receive enough votes to legitimately win the November election. Just 3 percent of Democrats said that was the case.

Cheney has been steadfast in her criticism of Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, while Trump has vowed to support any Republican in Wyoming who steps forth to challenge her in the next election.

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