Former President Donald Trump is planning to meet with a GOP primary challenger to Rep. Liz Cheney, according to a Thursday report.
Politico reported that Trump would be meeting with Harriet Hageman, a trial attorney who ran unsuccessfully for the 2018 GOP nomination for Wyoming governor, at his Bedminster, N.J., golf resort, citing five separate sources.
In recent weeks, the former president has met with a number of candidates set to challenge Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, for her seat ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
He has said he will choose to back one of those candidates over Cheney, whom he has often expressed disdain with after she voted with nine other Republicans to impeach him after blaming his rhetoric for the Jan. 6 Capitol breach.
Politico noted that the meeting between Hageman and Trump was noteworthy because of Hagenan’s history with Cheney.
“She was a member of Cheney’s leadership team during Cheney’s short-lived 2014 Senate campaign. She has also contributed to Cheney twice: a $500 check in 2013, and one for $1,500 in 2016,” Politico noted.
“She wrote in a Facebook post on Election Day 2018 that she was ‘fortunate to be able to spend some time with Congresswoman Liz Cheney this morning, learning more about the challenges we face, as well as the positive steps that have been taken in the last two years to fix Washington D.C.,’” the outlet added.
Hageman finished third in her 2018 gubernatorial campaign behind now-Gov. Mark Gordon (R) and investor Foster Friess, who had Trump’s support.
The former president has already met with a few Cheney challengers include state Rep. Chuck Gray and lawyer Darin Smith. In addition, Trump has voiced support for a pair of other potential contenders who have yet to announce official campaigns: state Sen. Bo Biteman and Catharine O’Neill, a former Trump administration official.
The reported meeting with Hageman comes as Republican Party officials announced they would not be supporting Cheney next year.
“In the immortal words of the 45th President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump …’You’re Fired!’” said letters sent recently to Cheney from GOP officials in Park and Carbon counties.
While the votes from the two counties are symbolic, they represent growing displeasure from state party officials at Cheney. The state party censured Cheney after she decided to vote to impeach Trump.
Cheney has also faced opposition from her party in Congress. In May, she was ousted from her position as chair of the Republican House Conference, the party’s No. 3 position in the chamber, by a wide margin.
“I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office,” Cheney said following the vote, adding that the “nation needs a strong Republican Party … based on the principles of conservatism.
“I plan to lead the fight to do that,” she added.
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She was replaced by Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, who vowed to push for ‘America First’ policies in her role.
Last month, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., suggested it was possible that Cheney could also be removed from her committee positions after agreeing to sit on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s select committee investigating the origins of the Capitol breach.
h/t: TrendingPolitics