Wyoming’s Liz Cheney called out House Republican leaders following a racially motivated shooting that killed 10 people in a Buffalo, New York supermarket over the weekend.
“The House GOP leadership has enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-semitism,” the Republican congresswoman tweeted Monday. “History has taught us that what begins with words ends in far worse. @GOP leaders must renounce and reject these views and those who hold them.”
Cheney’s remarks came amid a flurry of criticism aimed at Republicans and conservative commentators after it became known the alleged Buffalo shooter posted a diatribe referencing the racist “great replacement theory” as possible motivation for the attack.
What is replacement theory? Replacement theory is a conspiracy theory “that Black and brown immigrants are being brought into America to replace white voters and change the country’s political landscape,” writes the Deseret News’ Jennifer Graham.
- The theory has been spouted prominently by Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who, according to The New York Times, “has made elite-led demographic change a central theme of his show.”
- Carlson has mentioned replacement theory in more than 400 episodes of his show, but Fox News “largely ignored” the fact that the shooter referenced the ideology in its coverage of the mass shooting, according to The Guardian.
- On Monday, Carlson called the gunman “crazy” and said he is being used by Democrats to vilify conservatives, according to Newsweek.
White supremacy and the GOP: Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., has been accused of using the theory in a campaign ad, according to CNN, which featured an image of migrants crossing the border seen reflected in President Joe Biden’s sunglasses along with the text: “Radical Democrats are planning their most aggressive move yet: a PERMANENT ELECTION INSURRECTION.”
- Stefanik replaced Cheney as the No. 3 Republican in the House after Cheney was removed from her leadership role for rebuking former President Donald Trump, according to NBC News.
- In a statement Monday morning, a senior adviser to Stefanik said that “any implication or attempt to blame the heinous shooting in Buffalo on the Congresswoman is a disgusting new low for the Left, their Never Trump allies and their sycophant stenographers in the media.”
- Earlier this year, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., participated in a conference organized by white supremacist Nick Fuentes. Although House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., called their actions “appalling and wrong,” he did not formally punish them, according to The New York Times.
- Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., chimed in on Saturday, also criticizing Stefanik’s campaign ad in a tweet.
- “@EliseStefanik pushes white replacement theory? The #3 in the house GOP. @Liz_Cheney got removed for demanding truth. @GOPLeader should be asked about this,” he said.