Another day, another Trump crony hitting the airwaves to confuse the electorate with falsehoods and/or out-and-out lies. On Sunday, it was Rep. Liz Cheney’s (R-WY) turn to twist facts in defense of the president.
Cheney, in an interview on ABC’s This Week, took a question from host Martha Raddatz about the president adding to the discord in today’s politics while tweeting the fake Nancy Pelosi video. Cheney ignored the question, and instead decided to litigate the former FBI official Peter Strzok and attorney Lisa Page saga again.
Cheney’s strategy of distraction today was to use the terms “treason” and “coup.”
“I think what is crucially important to remember here is that you had Strzok and Page, who were in charge of launching this investigation, and they were saying things like we must stop this president,” Cheney said. “We need an insurance policy against this president. That, in my view, when you have people that are in the highest echelons of the law enforcement of this nation saying things like that, that sounds an awful lot like a coup. And it could well be treason. And I think that we need to know more.”
And in case some are not all that familiar with Strzok and Page, she hinted that a more well-known figure, former FBI Director James Comey, might have been up to no good too.
“We need to know what was Jim Comey’s role in all this? These people reported to him. Andy McCabe reported to him. What was Comey’s role in that?” Cheney said.
Rep. Liz Cheney: "We had people that are at the highest levels of our law enforcement … saying that they were going to stop a duly elected president of the United States."
"That sounds an awful lot like a coup and it could well be treason," she adds https://t.co/tzEmm40vCp pic.twitter.com/RhAVMWRfBU
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) May 26, 2019
After the congresswoman’s appearance on This Week, many took to Twitter to share articles explaining how Cheney was factually inaccurate and some claimed she was purposely misleading with her statements about treason.
Dear @Liz_Cheney, here is a fact check on treason, by one of the best reporters in the business and a Wyoming native. But you already know this, because you are smart and well read. So why use the term improperly?https://t.co/8wY3KGohZQ https://t.co/qp2QZ1GrpE
— Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) May 26, 2019
It is not a coup and it is not treason. The congresswoman either does not understand what treason means or is willfully misusing the term.
For the record, here is what constitutes treason: https://t.co/KzYdeQJM7a https://t.co/KUCwyxGfbr
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 26, 2019
Whether the president knew beforehand about how Cheney would defend him today is irrelevant. It’s widely known how much Trump loves this type of strategy. It’s a Roy Cohn tact that the president knows well and has deployed most of his professional life—a scorched Earth way of destroying your enemies, perceived or real. Job well done, congresswoman.
