The campaign of defeated Rep. Liz Cheney denied the assertion made by primary victor Harriet Hageman that there was no concession made at the conclusion of their divisive contest for Wyoming’s lone House of Representatives seat.
In a live broadcast on Wednesday night, Hageman said that Cheney just “left a very quick two-second” voicemail that failed to express sympathy for her loss.
However, the team of the disgraced Donald Trump critic provided Politico with an audio clip that purportedly showed Cheney leaving a considerably lengthier message on her opponent’s phone.
The tape appeared to start with a staff member informing Cheney that Hageman had won according to the Associated Press.
Liz Cheney is phoning, hello, Harriet. Tuesday, April 16, at around 8:13 a.m. I’m phoning to inform you that you won the election and to offer my congratulations. Thanks. The congresswoman may be heard saying “bye bye.”
Politico revealed an audio that apparently came from Hageman’s campaign shortly after publishing Cheney’s clip, supporting the Republican lawyer’s story.
A message that sounded like “Hi Harriet” was heard in a 23-second video clip that purported to be from Hageman’s phone.
The contact information for Liz Cheney seemed to be visible on Hageman’s phone in the hazy footage, along with a quick glimpse of the abbreviation for the month of August.
Hageman informed Sean Hannity of Fox News only a few hours before the tapes were published on Twitter early on Thursday morning: “There wasn’t a phone call.”
She phoned and left a very quick two-second message on my cellphone last night as I was leaving and getting ready to give my acceptance speech and had just arrived at the watch party.
That’s all there is to it. Liz Cheney just made the one attempt, and all she said was “Hello Harriet,” and that was the end of it,’ Hageman said. “I haven’t had any more communication with Liz Cheney.
She didn’t call to negotiate a concession or anything else with me, so. There was just one phone call made. It’s clear that I was quite busy with family and friends.
Politico points out that technological difficulties could have been involved, however it is unclear what exactly caused the mismatch.
On Tuesday night, the three-term congresswoman lost her position as the at-large representative for Wyoming in the House to Republican candidate Hageman, who will now represent the heavily Republican state in the next midterm elections.
She received only two of Wyoming’s 23 counties, and less than half of the votes that Hageman received.
Cheney’s ascent to prominence within the House GOP was halted when she defected to denounce Trump.
After serving as the deputy head of the House select committee looking into the assault on January 6, she was further marginalised by her peers.
For that effort, the Wyoming GOP disavowed her, the RNC censured her, and she lost her position as chair of the House GOP Conference to pro-Trump Rep. Elise Stefanik.
With Trump’s support, Hageman, who had only previously ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2018, surged to the head of the field.
She also won the support of Cheney’s future House colleagues, many of whom now support Trump.
Contrarily, Cheney was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to remove the former president over the violence in the Capitol.
Only two of them made it beyond the primaries and into November. Four, including Cheney, fell to opponents endorsed by Trump. A further four are retiring.
The Wyoming conservative’s next step is to establish a political organisation that will support anti-Trump Republican principles and work to prevent the former president from winning re-election.
In order to achieve so, according to campaign documents, Cheney changed her House campaign financing vehicle into a political action committee. Should Cheney decide to run for president in 2024, this organisation may potentially be utilised as a fundraising vehicle.