May 16, 2022 - Politics & Policy

Liz Cheney: House GOP enabled "white nationalism, white supremacy and anti-semitism"

US Representative Liz Cheney walks in the US Capitol in Washington, DC, May 12, 2022.

Rep. Liz Cheney in the Capitol on May 12. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

In the wake of the racially motivated mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, over the weekend, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) called on Republican leaders to "reject" views of white nationalism, white supremacy and anti-semitism, warning that "history has taught us that what begins with words ends in far worse."

Driving the news: "The House GOP leadership has enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-semitism," she wrote in a tweet.

  • "[Republican] leaders must renounce and reject these views and those who hold them," she wrote.

The big picture: Cheney's remarks come after a mass shooting, which the FBI is investigating as a hate crime and a case of "racially motivated violent extremism."

  • Erie County Sheriff John Garcia called the attack a "straight-up racially motivated hate crime."
  • The alleged shooter, an 18-year-old white man, drove from "hours away" in tactical gear and opened fire in a store in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Buffalo on Saturday afternoon, per Garcia.
  • President Biden on Sunday called on Americans to "address the hate that remains a stain on the soul of America" in the aftermath of the shooting.

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