Trump nemesis In the GOP primary, Rep. Liz Cheney lost

In a closely watched Republican primary race on Tuesday, Harriet Hageman, who was backed by Donald Trump, easily beat Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney.

After losing by about 30 points, the third-term congresswoman gave a speech in which she compared herself to Abraham Lincoln, talked about how important it is to accept the results of elections, and took several shots at Trump, whom she had voted to impeach after the riot in the Capitol on January 6.

"This isn't fun. "Every single one of us must always be ready to defend this amazing experiment we call America," Cheney said in his speech from Jackson, Wyoming.

"And elections are the most important part of our democratic system. They are the rules that our constitution is built on."

The 56-year-old daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney said she lost her seat in Congress because she didn't agree with Trump's claims that there was fraud in the 2020 election.

“Two years ago I won this primary with 73% of the vote. I could have easily done the same again,” Cheney said.

“The path was clear, but it would have required that I go along with President Trump’s lie about the 2020 election. It would have required that I enable his ongoing efforts to unravel our democratic system and attack the foundations of our republic. That was a path that I could not and would not take.”

The congresswoman said no House seat is worth more than the principles US legislators are sworn to protect. 

“Our Republic relies on the goodwill of all candidates for office to accept honorably the outcome of elections,” said Cheney, who called Hageman to concede the race. 

“This primary election is over. But now the real work begins,” she added, hinting at a potential presidential run. 

“The great and original champion of our party, Abraham Lincoln, was defeated in elections for the Senate and the House before he won the most important election of all,” she said.

“Lincoln ultimately prevailed, he saved our union and he defined our obligations as Americans for all of history.”

The race was called by NBC as incumbent Cheney garnered just 30% of the vote compared with Hageman’s 65% with about 10% of precincts reporting.

Hageman, in her victory speech in Cheyenne, thanked Trump for his backing.

“Obviously we’re all very grateful to President Trump, who recognizes that Wyoming has only one congressional representative and we have to make it count,” Hageman told her supporters.

Cheney got money from Democrats all over the country for her campaign, and Wyoming Democrats who switched parties to vote for her in the Republican primary were expected to give her a small boost.

The incumbent's loss, on the other hand, was widely expected, and she is now the first victim of Trump's revenge tour against the 10 House Republicans and 7 Republican senators who voted to impeach or convict him for starting the Capitol riot last year.

“Congratulations to Harriet Hageman on her great and very decisive WIN in Wyoming,” Trump wrote on his social media website.

“This is a wonderful result for America, and a complete rebuke of the Unselect Committee of political Hacks and Thugs. Liz Cheney should be ashamed of herself, the way she acted, and her spiteful, sanctimonious words and actions towards others. Now she can finally disappear into the depths of political oblivion where, I am sure, she will be much happier than she is right now.”

During the campaign, the 45th president called Cheney a "warmonger" and urged voters to support his "America First" slogan instead of her more interventionist foreign policy ideas. Cheney shot back by calling Trump a "would-be dictator."

Cheney is the vice chair and de facto lead prosecutor of the House select committee looking into the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot. He has played a major role in telling the story of Trump's actions leading up to that day, as well as his inaction during the violence.

“I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible; there will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain,” Cheney said in June at a public hearing of the riot committee.

But tensions between Cheney and Trump were growing before a wild group of Trump's supporters broke into the Capitol and stole things. In fact, he called her out by name on January 6, just before the crowd broke into the building to stop President Biden's victory from being certified.

In his speech before the riot, Trump told his supporters, "We have to get rid of the weak, bad congresspeople, the Liz Cheneys of the world. We had to throw them out. We had to get rid of her because, as you know, she doesn't want any soldier to come home."

One month before the riot, Trump vetoed a $740 billion defense bill, in part because Cheney wanted to keep US troops in Afghanistan, Germany, and South Korea for longer than Trump wanted.

Cheney angered his fellow House Republicans when he agreed to serve on the riot committee even though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had turned down Kevin McCarthy's nominations of pro-Trump Republicans for the panel (R-Calif.)

Later, Cheney said that the leaders of the House GOP "enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-semitism."

The Wyoming representative's reputation as an anti-Trump crusader led to rumors that she could be Biden's running mate in 2024, which would be a rare fusion ticket.

In January, Vice President Kamala Harris criticized "rumors" that Biden could replace her with someone else, like Cheney.

In April 2021, Cheney told The Post that she might run for president, but she didn't say when that might happen. She said, "I'm not saying yes or no to anything. Forever is a long time."

Dick Cheney, who had the same seat in the House from 1979 to 1989, put out a video ad for his daughter during the last few weeks of the campaign.

“In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual that was a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” the elder Cheney said. “He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters rejected him. He is a coward. A real man wouldn’t lie to his supporters.”

Dick Cheney also said, "Liz has no fear. She never gives up when she's in a fight. She will never do anything more important than lead the effort to make sure Donald Trump never gets to be president again, and she will be successful.

Cheney was the No. 3 Republican in the House until last year, when she was kicked out because of how often she criticized Trump. After she voted to impeach Trump, her House colleagues at first stood by her, but when she kept criticizing the ex-president, they turned against her.

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