Liz Cheney, a former Republican member of Congress, reportedly received boos from graduates during a commencement speech at Colorado College on Sunday.
As a 1988 graduate from the institution, Cheney’s reception was not as warm as she might have hoped. Graduates booed and turned their chairs away from her, the Daily Mail reported.
“After the 2020 election and the attack of January 6th, my fellow Republicans wanted me to lie. They wanted me to say the 2020 election was stolen, the attack of January 6th wasn’t a big deal, and Donald Trump wasn’t dangerous,” Cheney told the audience.
“I had to choose between lying and losing my position in House leadership,” she said.
Although some members of the audience applauded Cheney’s remarks, others booed her. One graduate displayed her displeasure with Cheney on her cap.
“Why listen to a racist, imperialist, transphobic, war monger?? Your hate is loud,” the cap read.
In 2022, Cheney lost reelection by nearly 40 points in the Republican primary. Upon losing, she settled for a professorship at the University of Virginia.
Her decision to slip into academia, an often far-left sphere, came after congressional Cheney voted with Democrats and reportedly implemented plots against her own party. Democrats welcomed Cheney’s treachery and later appointed her to the January 6 Committee.
In the spring of 2021, the Republican House conference fired Cheney as the GOP House conference chair with a vote of no confidence. But Cheney did not want to lose her powerful position in Republican House leadership. To save her title, Cheney reportedly met “off-the-record” with Fox News board member Paul Ryan to defend against a potential ouster. Breitbart News reported that Bill Kristol, editor-at-large of the Bulwark, “recognized the meeting as perhaps Cheney’s last gasp to remain in power.”
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Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.