Trump advisor Jason Miller says defeating Liz Cheney is 'one of the highest priorities'
- Trump advisor Jason Miller pointed out Liz Cheney as a top political target of the former president.
- Cheney faces the loss of her leadership role in the House and a tough GOP primary challenge in 2022.
- The No. 3 House Republican refuses to waver from her criticism of Trump's continued election lies.
A top advisor for former President Donald Trump said unseating House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney of Wyoming in her 2022 GOP primary election was a top priority of the former president, according to the Washington Post.
Trump senior advisor Jason Miller told the Post in a recent interview that the former president's political advisors have already begun to call contacts in Wyoming to field potential Republican primary challengers to Cheney.
Miller said defeating Cheney was "one of the highest priorities as far as primary endorsements go."
The Post also reported that Trump met with advisors in Florida earlier this week to review 2022 endorsements; the former president pledged to support one GOP challenger to avoid splitting the "anti-Cheney" vote in a divided field.
Cheney has increasingly found herself on the outs within her caucus as she continues to criticize Trump for refusing to acknowledge the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election that he lost to President Joe Biden.
After the November election, Trump spent months attempting to overturn the election results in a number of key states, including Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania. His campaign team lost nearly every major court battle.
Cheney has chastised Trump for his role in the January 6 Capitol riot, accusing him of feeding the insurrectionists with lies about the election results.
The conservative congresswoman, who's the No. 3 Republican in the House, was one of only 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for "incitement of insurrection" in his second impeachment trial.
Cheney received the backing of her caucus to keep her leadership role in a February vote, but she will almost certainly face a vote to remove her as conference chair next week.
GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, who tried to overturn the election results earlier this year, is a leading candidate to succeed Cheney.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana, both strong Trump allies, have abandoned support for Cheney's continued tenure in leadership.
Trump on Wednesday lashed out at Cheney from his newly launched blog.
"Warmonger Liz Cheney, who has virtually no support left in the Great State of Wyoming, continues to unknowingly and foolishly say that there was no Election Fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election when in fact, the evidence, including no Legislative approvals as demanded by the US Constitution, shows the exact opposite," he wrote.
The Post on Wednesday published an op-ed written by Cheney, where she argued that it was imperative for the GOP to adhere to the rule of law and lashed out at the former president.
"The Republican Party is at a turning point, and Republicans must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution," she wrote. "We Republicans need to stand for genuinely conservative principles, and steer away from the dangerous and anti-democratic Trump cult of personality."