This past Tuesday evening, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) found herself the target of heavy mockery for attempting to compare herself to former President Abraham Lincoln after her massive loss in the Wyoming Republican primary for the at-large congressional seat for the state.
With a total of 95% of the votes being accounted for, Cheney lost by a margin that was well over a 2-to-1 ratio, at 66.3% to 28.9%, to her political opponent, Harriet Hageman, who ran with the backing of former President Donald Trump.
“Tonight, Harriet Hageman has received the most votes in this primary, she won,” stated Cheney as part of a speech directly after the announcement of her drastic loss. “I called her to concede the race, this primary election is over. But now, the real work begins.”
Cheney then went on to try and compare herself to President Lincoln and to the Union’s General Ulysses S. Grant, who later went on to be the 18th president of the United States.
“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,” expressed Cheney. “Lincoln ultimately prevailed, he saved our Union, and he defined our obligation as Americans for all of history.”
Just a few minutes after trying to do that, Cheney went on, “In May of 1864, after years of war and a string of reluctant Union generals, Ulysses S. Grant met General Lee’s forces at the Battle of the Wilderness.”
“In two days of heavy fighting, the Union suffered over 17,000 casualties,” continued Cheney. “At the end of that battle, General Grant faced a choice. Most assumed he would do what previous Union generals had done and retreat. On the evening of May 7, Grant began to move. As the fires of the battle still smoldered, Grant rode to the head of the column. He rode to the intersection of Brock Road and Orange Plank Road, and there as the men of his army watched and waited, instead of turning North back towards Washington, and safety, Grant turned his horse south toward Richmond, and the heart of Lee’s army. Refusing to retreat, he pressed on to victory. Lincoln and Grant and all who fought in our nation’s tragic Civil War, including my own great, great grandfathers, saved our Union.”
This sparked a round of mockery all over social media in the wake of the landslide loss to Hageman as many of those who are more conservative-leaning took pretty extreme issue with her Lincoln comparison.
“Liz Cheney tried to make herself a martyr at the expense of our country and our party,” expressed another candidate for Congress, Wesley Hunt. “Comparing yourself to Lincoln doesn’t change that. The comparison is as tone deaf and ridiculous as her seat on the January 6th Committee.”