Here's What Liz Cheney Had To Say About Donald Trump's Claim About The 2020 Election

It might have been six months since the country went to the polls to elect a new president, but Donald Trump still appears to be nursing a grudge against those who sought to turn their backs on him. To mark the half year since voters opted out of Trumpism, he released a statement calling the November election "The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020" and said it "will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE" (via Forbes).

But Republican House member Liz Cheney, who voted to impeach Trump, isn't taking his comments sitting down. She, too, marked the day, first by going on social media, tweeting, "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." 

Also on the same day, and during a closed-door retreat in Sea Island, Georgia, for the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank, and in comments reported by CNN, Cheney said, "We can't embrace the notion the election is stolen. It's a poison in the bloodstream of our democracy ... We can't whitewash what happened on January 6 or perpetuate Trump's big lie. It is a threat to democracy. What he did on January 6 is a line that cannot be crossed."

As a phrase, "The Big Lie" has a historical context that predates the November 2020 elections by several decades. It was used repeatedly during the Second World War by the Nazis, and according to the Jewish Virtual Library, was attributed to Hitler's propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, who had said, "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it ... It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."

Rep. Liz Cheney has remained consistent in her position about the former president, saying he does not have a future role in her party's leadership. But Cheney appears to be fighting a Sisyphean battle against the leaders of her own caucus. Minority whip Steve Scalise and chairman of the Republican Study Committee Jim Banks have raised the possibility that Cheney could be removed from her post as the House No. 3 leader within a month, because her criticisms of Trump are "unwelcome distractions." Banks himself has said, "This idea that you just disregard President Trump is not where we are, and, frankly, he has a lot to offer still (via Axios).