Former Representative Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, broke her silence on Twitter to take aim at Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, over a post about the arrest of Jack Teixeira.
Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air Force National Guard’s 102nd Intelligence Wing, was detained on Thursday after allegedly leaking a trove of classified intelligence documents through a Discord chat group in recent months. Greene appeared to defend Teixeira in several Twitter posts, while suggesting the administration of President Joe Biden was targeting him for “exposing the truth.”
Many of the documents allegedly leaked by Teixeira included details about Ukraine’s and Russia’s military capabilities, as well as information about some key allies of the United States like South Korea and Israel. While the Pentagon has confirmed the authenticity of the leaked documents, it has also said some of the information was doctored or changed. Biden downplayed the impact of the leaks in Thursday remarks, saying there was nothing of “great consequence” shared in the trove of files.
Cheney, who has routinely criticized Greene and the broader hard-right faction of the Republican Party, hadn’t posted on Twitter since late March, but retweeted one of Greene’s posts on Thursday. She called out the Georgia Republican, saying she shouldn’t be trusted with America’s secrets.
OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP/Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for Congressional Integrity Project
“Marjorie Taylor Greene makes clear yet again that she cannot be trusted with America’s national security information and should not have a security clearance of any kind,” Cheney wrote.
The tweet came in direct response to a lengthy post by Greene, in which she alleged “the Biden Administration has lied to us from the very beginning” about the Ukraine war.
“Now the Biden Administration and DOJ want to arrest a likely low-lever National Guardsman for exposing the TRUTH?? It’s Joe Biden, his Administration, and the Department of Defense that are breaking the law. They are violating the Constitution by inserting us into an armed conflict most Americans don’t want and no American benefits from,” Greene wrote on Twitter.
When reached for further comment on Cheney’s remarks by Newsweek via email on Friday morning, Greene’s spokesperson Nick Dyer insinuated that the former Republican lawmaker’s views are irrelevant. He had a one-word response: “Who?”
Marjorie Taylor Greene makes clear yet again that she cannot be trusted with America’s national security information and should not have a security clearance of any kind. https://t.co/8RtX3XxMmY
— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) April 13, 2023
Cheney, who previously chaired the House Republican Conference, lost her reelection bid to a hard-right GOP challenger in the 2022 midterm election after she became one of former President Donald Trump’s most outspoken critics. In addition to Trump, Cheney has repeatedly attacked Greene and other Trump loyalists.
The Wyoming Republican, long-seen as a hawk on foreign policy, has raised particular concern about Republicans—such as Greene—whom she views as promoting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s propaganda. Cheney has dubbed Greene and other Republicans opposing aide to Ukraine as “the Putin wing of the GOP.”
Representative Robert Garcia, a California Democrat, similarly called out Greene for her apparent defense of Teixeira in a Thursday night Twitter post.
“As a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, I’m calling on @SpeakerMcCarthy to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene immediately from our committee,” he wrote.
Former GOP Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who like Cheney has been a staunch critic of Trump and his faction of the Republican Party, slammed Greene as well. “MTG is so insanely stupid and has absolutely no clue about how this stuff works. Strip her clearance,” he wrote.
However, some other prominent conservatives shared similar views to Greene. Popular Fox News opinion host Tucker Carlson lobbed criticism at the media and suggested Teixeira was being targeted for revealing the truth.
“Now our news media exists, and have constitutional protection, precisely in order to push back against this grotesque standard. Their only job is to tell the truth, yet tonight the news media are celebrating the capture of the kid who told Americans what’s actually happening in Ukraine,” Carlson said Thursday evening on his Fox News program.
Newsweek reached out to Cheney’s The Great Task organization via email for further comment.
