George W. Bush Maximizes Political Donations to Trump Impeachment Supporters Liz Cheney and Lisa Murkowski
- George W. Bush maximized his political donations by donating to the Cheney and Murkowski campaigns.
- Both backed Trump’s impeachment for the insurgency and now face primary opponents backed by Trump.
Former President George W. Bush gave the Wyoming representative the maximum political contributions allowed.
New disclosures deposit with the Federal Election Commission said Bush gave Cheney $5,800 on Oct. 28 for the general and primary elections. On December 31, he also gave Murkowski $2,900 for his primary. The FEC sets limits on political contributions.
Cheney, the daughter of Bush’s own Vice President Dick Cheney and an outspoken critic of Trump, is now the House Select Committee’s lead Republican investigating Jan. 6. She is set to face Harriet Hageman, a former RNC official who was endorsed by Trump, in a primary in August. Cheney outshot Hageman by more than four to one — $2 million for Cheney to $440,000 for Hageman — FEC Disclosures show.
In Alaska, Murkowski faces Kelly Tshibaka, a former commissioner of the Alaska Department of Administration. Given her relatively subdued electoral record, Murkowski has long been vulnerable to major challenges, and she has led a successful writing campaign in 2010 after losing that year’s Republican primary.
Tshibaka is one of two GOP Senate candidates — the other being scandal-ridden former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens — who is call for Senator Mitch McConnell loses his place at the top of the Senate Republican caucus.
Cheney was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting an insurrection on Jan. 6, while Murkowski was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict him.
FEC records indicated that Bush made no other political contributions in 2021 until October.
In addition to these personal contributions, Bush organized a fundraiser for Cheney in Dallas last fall, and he repeatedly condemned the January 6 attacks. On the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Bush compared domestic right-wing extremists to the perpetrators of 9/11.
“There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home,” Bush said during a speech in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. “But in their disdain for pluralism, in their contempt for human life, in their determination to sully national symbols, they are children of the same filthy spirit. And it is our permanent duty to confront them.”
