Last Updated on February 25, 2022
At CPAC, Liz Cheney challenger Harriet Hageman refused to answer when asked if Trump won the 2020 election. Hageman had previously been involved in an RNC scheme to steal the 2016 GOP nomination from Donald Trump, according to a report from Politico.
“Did Trump win 2020?” Hageman was asked while mingling with CPAC attendees. After initially brushing off the question, Hageman laughed it off and refused to answer upon being asked for a second time.
Hageman was then pressed over her strong historical ties with Cheney and other GOP insiders. “Are you still close with your friend Liz ma’am?” Hageman was asked. After again refusing to answer any of the questions, Hageman began to exit the event. “Who are you going to be loyal to; Kevin or Donald Trump?” The Cheney challenger again refused to answer, saying: “I don’t answer questions from people as rude as you are.”
Despite running as a primary challenger to the Wyoming Rep., Hageman was hired by Liz Cheney as a senior advisor in 2013, when Cheney tried and failed to run for U.S. Senate. Additionally, Hageman has described Liz Cheney as her “best friend.” Harriet Hageman was also absent during the Wyoming GOP meeting to censure Liz Cheney following the congresswoman’s anti-Trump impeachment vote.
Hageman was also tied to the infamous 2016 GOP convention plot to steal the nomination from Donald Trump, who had been selected by primary voters. The effort, which was led by former Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli, was detailed heavily by mainstream media and anti-Trump conservative publications in 2016. It claimed to be a grassroots effort to give Republican Party delegates a greater role in the nomination process. On July 17, 2016, only days before the RNC, Cuccinelli met “with a cadre of delegates” in order to discuss the matter, including Harriet Hageman.
Hageman has received the endorsement of several high-profile establishment Republicans in her effort to unseat Cheney, including Kevin McCarthy and Elise Stefanik. Donald Trump has also endorsed Hageman despite her previous opposition to his Presidential candidacy.
A former senior Wyoming Republican Party insider told National File that President Trump’s endorsement was unwise. “Liz Cheney wins again. Liz Cheney has somehow gotten into the Trump circle with the suggestion that Harriet Hageman should replace her, wink wink, then he endorses Harriet Hageman,” the former official explained.
