The Lincoln Project on Wednesday denied coordinating with Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as she plays defense after voting to impeach then-President Trump, but defended her against attacks from Trump allies such as Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who held an anti-Cheney rally last week in her home state of Wyoming.
“The Lincoln Project has had no interaction with Congresswoman Cheney,” the “never Trump” GOP super PAC said in a statement. “That said, we think she’d take Matt Gaetz in a fight with one hand tied behind her back.”
The organization issued the statement in response to what it said were “rumor[s] circulating” about coordination with Cheney, the highest-ranking House Republican to vote in favor of Trump’s impeachment in January.
“This is yet another baseless lie being spread by the Jim Crow Caucus and its leader [House Minority Leader] Kevin McCarthy [R-Calif.], a man who lives in a rancid bubble of conspiracy, fantasy, and desperation,” the group said.
“It’s telling that Republican leadership spends more time focusing on an imaginary alliance than it does exposing and condemning the QAnon conspiracies being spread by members of their own caucus,” the statement added, an apparent reference to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
In addition to promoting the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory, Greene has backed claims that multiple school shootings and the Sept. 11 attacks were staged, and she has repeatedly supported Trump’s unfounded allegations that the 2020 election was rigged.
In his Thursday rally, Gaetz called Cheney part of an “insider club” that “want[s] to turn our government to its default setting, enriching them, making them more powerful at our expense, but we can stop and it starts right here in Wyoming.”
Two other GOP congressmen, Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.) and Matt Rosendale (Mont.), are taking the lead on a resolution calling for Cheney to leave her position as House Republican Conference chair.