- Republican Rep. Liz Cheney says she's weighing a 2024 bid for president.
- A spokesman for Sen. Ted Cruz mocked her statement, saying he assumes she'll run as a Democrat.
- Cruz, the runner up for the 2016 GOP nomination, hasn't ruled out his own 2024 bid.
If a statement from Team Cruz is any indication, Rep. Liz Cheney can expect to hear more "Republican In Name Only" attacks from conservatives as she considers running for president in 2024.
"I assume Liz Cheney is considering joining the crowded Democrat primary field that includes the likes of Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, or any number of other Democrats," Steve Guest, a spokesperson for Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, told Insider.
Cheney said Wednesday morning that she's weighing a 2024 bid after losing her Wyoming Republican primary to a candidate backed by former President Donald Trump. "I will be doing whatever it takes to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office," she told TODAY's Savannah Guthrie, saying she'd decide "in the coming months."
She has become a target for conservative Republicans after voting to impeach Trump over the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol and serving as vice chair of the House committee investigating the attack.
Trump is widely expected to run for president again, and his allies think the search of his Mar-a-Lago home only boosts his chances in a GOP primary.
Guest said he had nothing to add to his statement when asked whether a Cheney bid in her own party's Republican primary would be an incentive for Cruz to jump in.
When Insider asked Cruz — the runner up for the 2016 GOP nomination — in June whether he'd run again, he didn't rule it out. "Time will tell," he said then.
Guest's statement targets not only Cheney but President Joe Biden, who has said he will run for reelection in 2024 if his health allows. Cruz told Insider in June, "I think nobody believes that Biden's gonna run again."
After they savaged each other during the 2016 GOP primary, Cruz became a Trump loyalist and was a leader among those on January 6, 2021, who objected to certifying Biden as the next president.
But last year, Cruz told the conservative outlet Truth Gazette that he would "absolutely" run for president again "in a heartbeat," calling his 2016 run "the most fun I've ever had in my life."
