Liz Cheney says Biden called her after election loss to Trump-backed GOP rival, had ‘very good talk’

Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney said Sunday that President Joe Biden called her after she lost her seat in a heated primary race against a GOP challenger backed by Donald Trump. 

Cheney told ABC News’ This Week that she had a ‘very good talk’ with the Democrat commander-in-chief, confirming earlier reports that the two spoke following her ouster from the House of Representatives.

The three-term lawmaker revealed she’s heard from ‘some’ of her soon-to-be-former Congressional colleagues as well, the vast majority of whom publicly shunned Cheney for her criticism of Trump and work on the Democrat-led January 6 committee.

When pressed, however, Cheney refused to name who they were – though she did offer praise for the nine other House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump over last year’s Capitol riot.

On Tuesday last week, Trump-endorsed attorney Harriet Hageman soundly defeated Cheney in the Republican primary for Wyoming’s at-large Congressional District.

Cheney lost all but two counties in the deep-red state.

However her final year in the House has been marked by bipartisan praise for her continued criticism of Trump, despite its ramifications on her political career, as well as her leadership as Vice Chair on the panel investigating his ties to the Capitol insurrection.

That admiration apparently extends all the way up to the Democrat in the White House.

‘I did hear from President Biden. We had a very – a very good talk, a talk about the importance of putting the country ahead of partisanship,’ Cheney said.

She also confirmed reports that she and Biden had a ‘good talk’ about partisanship and fealty to the Constitution following the loss

DailyMail.com has reached out to the White House for comment but did not immediately hear back. 

Aside from Biden, however, Cheney admitted that she ‘heard from a number of other people, as you can imagine, over the course of the last several days.’

Host Jon Karl asked, ‘And some of your Republican colleagues here in Congress?’

‘Some, yeah,’ Cheney replied.

Karl pressed again: ‘Some that don’t want to be named, maybe?’

‘Some,’ she repeated.

Cheney paused to chuckle, then continued, ‘No, I mean, look, I think that there are a number of my colleagues who have done the right thing. I would put, certainly, those of us who voted to impeach in that category.’

‘A number of others who expressed the view that, you know, they are supportive, they wish they would have done the right thing,’ the lawmaker continued.

‘And many others who, you know, have simply chosen another path.’

Among that category, she singled out House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy. 

Hageman got more than double the votes that Cheney did in deep-red, pro-Trump Wyoming

McCarthy, who is widely considered the most likely candidate for Speaker of the House if Republicans take the majority in November, has shown a ‘total lack of understanding’ for that leadership role, Cheney claimed.

‘My views about Kevin McCarthy are very clear. The Speaker of the House is the second in line for the presidency. It requires somebody who understands and recognizes their duty, their oath, their obligation,’ Cheney said.

‘He’s been completely unfaithful to the Constitution and demonstrated a total lack of understanding of the significance and the importance of the role of speaker.’

McCarthy was among the first high-profile Republicans to distance themselves from Cheney to curry favor with Trump. 

Other Republican entities soon followed suit, with the Wyoming GOP no longer recognizing Cheney as a member and her work on the January 6 committee getting her censured by the Republican National Committee.

Still, Cheney said on Sunday, her loss is ‘not necessarily a representative sample’ that Trump is the future of the party.

‘It says, I think, that clearly his hold is very strong among some portions of the Republican Party,’ Cheney explained.

‘I think it also tells you that large portions of our party, including the leadership of our party, both at a state level in Wyoming as well as on a national level with the RNC, is very sick.’