Harriet Hageman, the Donald Trump-endorsed primary challenger to Wyoming GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, took aim at the congresswoman over a report this week that Cheney’s husband is reaping the riches of his firm’s contracts with China despite his wife’s constant calls to hold China accountable for its deadly human rights abuses.
“This is exactly the problem with Washington, D.C.,” Hageman said on the “John Solomon Reports” podcast on Wednesday as she blasted Cheney and her husband, Philip Perry.
Cheney has attempted to fashion herself as the tough-on-China candidate and recently signed onto the “China Task Force Report” assembled by House Republicans in D.C. that blasts China for its many human rights abuses.
Yet Perry is a partner at Latham & Watkins, a law firm with deep ties to Chinese companies, some of which are connected to China’s military and intelligence services, Just the News reported on Tuesday.
“What do we find out when we dig a little bit deeper” is that “her husband and she are personally, financially benefiting from working for China and Kazakhstan and Belarus and Saudi Arabia,” Hageman said, according to Just the News.
The candidate rightly pointed out that things like this prove that Cheney is a creature of the D.C. swamp who talks out of both sides of her mouth, denouncing China on one hand but having her family enriched by companies in business deals with China on the other.
Perry has claimed that he does not personally work with the Latham clients that are tied directly to China. But the fact is, he benefits from those contracts because he is a partner in the firm. The Wyoming challenger also said that Perry had every capacity to distance himself from this situation but chose not to do so.
“He has a choice, he can either work with his firm and take the stand that his wife is apparently advocating publicly, and say, ‘We’re not going to represent countries or companies that, number one have problems with human rights abuses, and number two, who are really kind of in a soft war with the United States.’ Or you can go to another law firm,” Hageman said.
“Have some integrity,” she added pointedly.
Hageman may be on the verge of replacing Cheney in Congress. By many indications, Cheney’s re-election bid is in deep trouble. Democrats in Washington may love her, but it seems many in Wyoming do not.
For instance, a straw poll held last month by the Wyoming Republican State Central Committee found Hageman trouncing Cheney 59-6 There have been other polls that must also worry Cheney’s campaign as well.
Not only has Cheney found disfavor at home, but she is also in trouble on the national scene. Last week, the Republican National Committee voted to censure her along with Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger because the pair joined the Democrats in their obscene Jan. 6 committee show trials.
The RNC met in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Feb. 5 and passed a resolution that Cheney and Kinzinger inappropriately cooperated with the Democrat-run House Committee investigating the Capitol incursion and deserved censure for causing harm to the GOP.
JUST IN: RNC passes resolution censuring Cheney and Kinzinger in a voice vote. They were combined with other resolutions RNC proposed. Overwhelming yes vote. Only a small handful of nos.
— Allan Smith (@akarl_smith) February 4, 2022
The representatives were participating in “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse,” the resolution stated.
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel also personally denounced the two apostates.
“Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger crossed a line. They chose to join Nancy Pelosi in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse that had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol,” McDaniel said. “That’s why Republican National Committee members and myself overwhelmingly support this resolution.”
The signs are not good for Liz Cheney, but we will find out on Aug. 16 just where she stands with the voters when Wyoming Republicans go to the polls for their 2022 primary.