Liz Cheney says Republicans must establish that 'we aren’t the party of white supremacy'

Wyoming GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, the third-ranking House Republican, says it was time for her political party to "make clear that we aren't the party of white supremacy."

Cheney made the comment Tuesday during a virtual foreign policy event with the Reagan Institute.

Cheney said that it is crucial that members of her caucus forcefully condemn the individuals responsible for the January 6 Capitol breach.

"It's very important for us to ignore the temptation to look away," she continued. "You saw the symbols of Holocaust denial, for example, at the Capitol that day; you saw the Confederate flag being carried through the rotunda, and I think we as Republicans in particular, have a duty and an obligation to stand against that, to stand against insurrection."

Last month, Cheney became the sole member of the House Republican leadership to vote in favor of impeaching then-President Trump for incitement of insurrection at the U.S. Capitol Building.

Her decision to do so has prompted significant backlash – from constituents and party members in her home state, where she was censured, and in the House, where fellow GOP members forced a conference vote to strip her of her leadership role. She held on to her position by a roughly 2-1 margin. 

This week, Cheney doubled down on her criticism of the former president, calling his response to the Capitol breach an "existential threat to who we are" that mustn't "be minimized or trivialized, and it can never happen again."

Cheney has also come out swinging against the former president's America First foreign policy philosophy, which she calls "wrong and dangerous."

"Isolationism was wrong and dangerous then and it is wrong and dangerous now," she said.

While Trump is no longer president, some of his loyal supporters in congress continue to champion his foreign policy philosophy, which is comprised of ideas that Cheney says are "just as dangerous today as they were in 1940 when isolationists launched the America First movement to appease Hitler and prevent America from aiding Britain in the fight against the Nazis."