Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) blasted Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) for wearing makeup after he attacked her for being insufficiently loyal to Donald Trump. Gaetz is planning a rally next Thursday in Cheyenne with local Republicans who are mad at Cheney for supporting the second impeachment of Trump following the MAGA riots earlier this month.
“Rep. Gaetz can leave his beauty bag at home,” said a spokesperson for Cheney. “In Wyoming, the men don’t wear make-up.”
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“I do not want her job,” Gaetz said of the House Republican Conference Chair and the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney. “I unequivocally am not seeking a position in House Leadership. I also know Wyoming can do better.”
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Cheney has faced criticism in her home state – where 70% of people voted for Trump in 2020 – for her support of the second impeachment, and she already has a 2022 primary challenger as the backlash against her mounts.
Still, despite facing attacks from her Republican colleagues, it’s striking that Cheney would lash out by attacking Gaetz for not being a real man. Cheney’s sister is an out lesbian and, of course, there are plenty of men who are represented by Cheney in the year 2021 who wear makeup.
Cheney’s spokesperson’s comment was a reference to an interview Gaetz did with Vanity Fair last year where he talked about his use of concealer before media appearances.
Gaetz, who is engaged to his fiancee Ginger Luckey, was the subject of gay rumors last year when he said that he lived with the 19-year-old brother of his ex-girlfriend, a teen he said he considered to be his son. They are not related biologically or legally nor had Gaetz ever mentioned their relationship before.
“Our relationship as a family is defined by our love for each other, not by any paperwork,” he said at the time.
Cheney and Gaetz have terrible records on LGBTQ issues, with both earning a score of “0” on HRC’s Congressional Scorecard due to their solid opposition to LGBTQ equality.
In 2013, Cheney said that despite having a lesbian sister, she opposes marriage equality: “I love Mary very much, I love her family very much. This is just an issue on which we disagree.”
“Liz has been a guest in our home, has spent time and shared holidays with our children, and when Mary and I got married in 2012 — she didn’t hesitate to tell us how happy she was for us,” Cheney’s sister’s wife Heather Poe wrote in a Facebook post at the time. “To have her now say she doesn’t support our right to marry is offensive to say the least.”
“Liz – this isn’t just an issue on which we disagree – you’re just wrong – and on the wrong side of history,” Mary Cheney wrote when sharing Poe’s comments.
