Trump loyalists are determined to chase Rep. Liz Cheney out of the Republican Party for daring to say that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election and that an insurrection to overturn that election is a bad thing. House Republicans have already booted her out of her leadership role, but that may not be enough. Rep. Matt Gaetz—prior to his sex trafficking problems—went to Wyoming to rally Republicans against Cheney, and Donald Trump Jr. has attacked her. And Cheney very predictably faces a primary challenge, which got interesting this week thanks to a Facebook Live and interview offered by one of her primary opponents.
“So, bottom line, it's a story when I was young, two teenagers, girl gets pregnant,” Wyoming state Sen. Anthony Bouchard said on Facebook Live. “You've heard those stories before. She was a little younger than me, so it's like the Romeo and Juliet story.”
Romeo and Juliet, he said, and he was being more serious than he might have sounded.
Bouchard then went into a little more detail with the Casper Star-Tribune, and … it didn’t get better. She was 14, he was 18. They got married when she was 15 and he was 19, divorced three years later, and she died by suicide when she was 20.
It’s a sad story. Time has passed. But his effort to get out in front of opposition research about that part of his life was, well, creepy. “She was a little younger than me.” She was 14! And, okay, had they stayed together and she lived past 20, when they were 28 and 32 it wouldn’t have seemed like a huge age difference. But 14 … no, man, no. And Romeo and Juliet? Yikes.
Bouchard is not Cheney’s only primary challenger, but he is a credible one—because he’s a state senator and “one of Wyoming's most prominent gun rights advocates,” according to the Star-Tribune. He also raised $334,000 in the first quarter of 2021, after entering the race in January. That said, Republicans looking to punish Cheney for her disloyalty to Trump are likely to have choices, which is why another Republican was apparently trying to use the opposition research to push Bouchard out of the race. But one of the most disturbing things to contemplate is, if the race came down to Cheney and Bouchard, who would Wyoming Republicans choose?
“So, bottom line, it's a story when I was young, two teenagers, girl gets pregnant,” Wyoming state Sen. Anthony Bouchard said on Facebook Live. “You've heard those stories before. She was a little younger than me, so it's like the Romeo and Juliet story.”
Romeo and Juliet, he said, and he was being more serious than he might have sounded.
Bouchard then went into a little more detail with the Casper Star-Tribune, and … it didn’t get better. She was 14, he was 18. They got married when she was 15 and he was 19, divorced three years later, and she died by suicide when she was 20.
It’s a sad story. Time has passed. But his effort to get out in front of opposition research about that part of his life was, well, creepy. “She was a little younger than me.” She was 14! And, okay, had they stayed together and she lived past 20, when they were 28 and 32 it wouldn’t have seemed like a huge age difference. But 14 … no, man, no. And Romeo and Juliet? Yikes.
Bouchard is not Cheney’s only primary challenger, but he is a credible one—because he’s a state senator and “one of Wyoming's most prominent gun rights advocates,” according to the Star-Tribune. He also raised $334,000 in the first quarter of 2021, after entering the race in January. That said, Republicans looking to punish Cheney for her disloyalty to Trump are likely to have choices, which is why another Republican was apparently trying to use the opposition research to push Bouchard out of the race. But one of the most disturbing things to contemplate is, if the race came down to Cheney and Bouchard, who would Wyoming Republicans choose?