Liz Cheney unleashed a scorching tweet against House GOP leaders on Monday—a group she had been among before her split with Donald Trump. The tweet comes in the wake of the mass shooting in Buffalo, which authorities have called a targeted assault by a white gunman on Black victims. "The House GOP leadership has enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-semitism," Cheney tweeted. "History has taught us that what begins with words ends in far worse. ... GOP leaders must renounce and reject these views and those who hold them."
Cheney did not elaborate or name names. But as USA Today reports, the tweet has focused attention on the woman who replaced Cheney in the No. 3 position in the House, Rep. Elise Stefanik. Since the Buffalo shooting, Stefanik has taken criticism (including from fellow Republican and Cheney ally Rep. Adam Kinzinger) for a series of ads last year accusing Democrats of trying to boost the number of undocumented immigrants in the nation in order to win elections. Stefanik's critics liken it to her backing "great replacement" theory, though she did not use that phrase. The alleged Buffalo gunman and shooters in other racial attacks have cited the conspiracy theory.
"Despite sickening and false reporting, Congresswoman Stefanik has never advocated for any racist position or made a racist statement," an adviser said Monday, adding that Stefanik is "heartbroken and saddened" over the Buffalo shooting, per Politico. When the ads surfaced last year, an editorial in Stefanik's hometown paper, the Albany Times-Union, asserted that she isn't "so brazen as to use the slogans (such as replacement theory) themselves; rather, she couches the hate in alarmist anti-immigrant rhetoric that’s become standard fare for the party of Donald Trump." (More Liz Cheney stories.)
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