Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney on Monday called out the House Republican leadership team she once served on for enabling vile forms of racism and demanded they reject those GOP members who have made common cause with racists after a deadly shooting in Buffalo, New York this weekend.
In a tweet posted to her personal Twitter account Monday morning, Ms Cheney, who until last year served as chair of the House GOP Conference, said House Republican leaders have “enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-semitism.“
History has taught us that what begins with words ends in far worse,” she said. “GOP leaders must renounce and reject these views and those who hold them”.
Ms Cheney’s denunciation of House Republican leaders comes nearly one year to the day she was ousted from her leadership post over her refusal to not criticise former president Donald Trump for having incited the 6 January 2021 attack on the Capitol, and less than 48 hours after a gunman allegedly shot and killed 10 people at a Buffalo, New York supermarket in a predominantly Black area of that city.
A “manifesto” posted online that is tied to the alleged gunman references numerous racist ideas, such as the “white replacement theory,” which alleges that Democrats are attempting to supplant white voters with Hispanic immigrants and other people of colour to give them an electoral advantage.
Some conservative pundits such as Fox News host Tucker Carlson have promoted the idea. When the Anti-Defamation League condemned Mr Carlson, Florida Representative Matt Gaetz defended the theory.
“@TuckerCarlson is CORRECT about Replacement Theory as he explains what is happening to America,” he tweeted last year. “The ADL is a racist organization.”
