Former President George W. Bush will headline a fundraiser next month in Dallas for Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney, one of Donald Trump’s top targets in GOP primaries next year.
The event, confirmed by a source who spoke anonymously because they weren’t authorized to say anying, turns Cheney’s reelection race into a proxy war between the ex-presidents representing competing factions of the Republican Party.
Cheney, a daughter of Bush’s two-term vice president, Dick Cheney, was the most prominent House Republican to vote to impeach Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol building.
She has since emerged as one of his most vocal antagonists against his unsubstantiated claim of massive voter fraud last year , with Trump vowing to exact his revenge.
Earlier this month, Trump announced his support for Cheney challenger and Cheyenne attorney Harriet Hageman while calling on the other GOP challengers to drop out, which most have.
While Bush has generally kept a low profile since leaving office in 2009, he delivered a pointed speech on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in which he warned of the country’s growing internal division and a “violence that gathers within.”
It marked some of Bush’s sharpest criticism of the January 6th attack on the U-S Capitol and appeared to be an implicit criticism of Trump’s brand of politics.
Trump retaliated in his usual fashion with a statement saying “Bush led a failed and uninspiring presidency. He shouldn’t be lecturing anybody!” because the World Trade Center came down during his presidency.
Cheney was ousted from her #3 GOP House leadership position for taking on Trump but has posted huge fundraising numbers with two consecutive record quarters this year, according to Federal Election Commission filings..
That includes bringing in $1.54-million dollars in the first 3 month of the year and $1.88 million dollars from April through June.