Rep. Liz Cheney bashes Bernie Sanders on Twitter and calls him a 'commie' with 'daddy issues' with 'my daddy'

Mark Makela/Reuters, Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

Representative Liz Cheney from Wisconsin, Senator and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders from Vermont.

• Representative Liz Cheney from Wisconsin, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, fired back at Senator Bernie Sanders on Twitter Friday night after he criticized her father's "national security advice."
• Cheney called Sanders, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, a "commie, who honeymooned in Soviet Union" and suggested he has "daddy issues" with "my daddy."
• Sanders first insulted the Cheneys after Liz attacked his fellow presidential candidate, Senator Elizabeth Warren, on Twitter on Wednesday, asking her "which American cities and how many American citizens are you willing to sacrifice with your policy of forcing the US to absorb a nuclear attack before we can strike back?"
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Representative Liz Cheney from Wisconsin and Senator Bernie Sanders sparred on Twitter this week in a series of tweet exchanges starting Wednesday, after the first night of the second round of the Democratic 2020 presidential debates.

Cheney, who is the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, tweeted at Sanders' fellow presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren, who endorsed adopting a policy against nuclear first use during her Tuesday night debate appearance. 

"Key question for Elizabeth Warren @ewarren today - which American cities and how many American citizens are you willing to sacrifice with your policy of forcing the US to absorb a nuclear attack before we can strike back?" Cheney tweeted.

Sanders, who holds an ideologically similar stance to Warren and defended her during the debate itself, quote tweeted Cheney on Friday and attacked her father's record on national security. During his vice presidency, Cheney's father heavily influenced US foreign policy and national security policy after 9/11, including the inception of the Iraq War.

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Sanders, who opposed the Iraq War and is critical of Cheney's legacy, tweeted that "Taking national security advice from a Cheney has already caused irreparable damage to our country. We don't need anymore, thanks."

Cheney responded with a quote tweet of her own that said "No surprise commie @BernieSanders, who honeymooned in Soviet Union, is ok with U.S. getting attacked first. (On a side note, he seems to have daddy issues...with my daddy.)"

In referring to Sanders, a democratic socialist, as a communist, Cheney referred to his 10-day official trip to the then-communist Soviet Union that Sanders called "a very strange honeymoon" after his marriage in 1998, during which he criticized the US, offending a Republican in his entourage. Sanders' senior adviser has characterized the trip as a means to form a foreign partnership. 

Both of Cheney's tweets were ratioed, an internet slang term that refers to an overwhelmingly negative response to someone's tweet that can be identified by it having significantly more replies, typically composed of negative reactions, than likes or retweets.

Sanders has tweeted since Cheney last attacked him, though he has not acknowledged her insults.