Representative Liz Cheney (R., Wyo.) told Martha MacCallum on Thursday many Democrats wanted the United States to become a socialist nation.
"I can tell you this as the Republican Conference Chair, someone who's responsible for a large part of our messaging, that we are going to be having these debates based on substance. We know that the American people do not want this to be a socialist nation. The problem of the Democratic side is a lot of them do want it to be a socialist nation," Cheney said, "They don't understand fundamentally that when you give government the amount of power they want to give the federal government, you're taking people's freedom away. We won't let that happen on our side of the aisle."
Cheney also hit back at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) for calling for abolishing the Department of Homeland Security. Citing Ocasio-Cortez's failure to mention the department was formed shortly after the September 11th terrorist attacks.
There is a "lack of willingness to recognize what the nation went through, the worst attack in our history," Cheney said. "The fact that we put the Department of Homeland Security together to help ensure the security of the homeland. It was one thing when they were out there saying they were going to abolish ICE, that in and of itself is absurd and irresponsible enough."
Calling the self-described democratic-socialist "one of the intellectual leaders" of the House Democratic caucus, Cheney said Ocasio-Cortez's calls to abolish the Department of Homeland Security are absurd, dangerous, and "highly irresponsible."
Ocasio-Cortez called the creation of DHS "an egregious mistake," saying, "People sounded the alarm back then, that these agencies are extrajudicial, that they lack effective oversight, and it is baked into the core foundational structure of these agencies."