Fox News’ Bret Baier Confronts Liz Cheney Over ‘Russian Bounty’ Story

On Thursday, recently ousted Republican Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney defended her heavy promotion of an anonymously sourced story that claimed that Russia paid bounties to Taliban soliders to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan.

The claim was used as a battering ram against President Trump for months by Cheney and Democrats. Then earlier this year, the Biden administration admitted they had no conclusive evidence.

Cheney’s interview took place on Special Report with Bret Baier and the Fox News host took issue with some of her comments.

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Baier Confronts Cheney Over ‘Russian Bounties’ Story

Baier asked Cheney, “Last year, many in the media and in Washington, including you, amplified anonymous sources, stories claiming President Trump ignored intelligence that Russians were paying bounties to kill Americans in Afghanistan. And we’ve since learned that that intelligence was pretty shoddy, poorly sourced. Do you regret taking part in spreading that story?”

Instead of apologizing, Cheney defended the ‘Russian bounties’ story. 

Cheney said, “I think actually if you look at the details of the story, Bret, you will see that the intelligence community has made a recommendation about that intelligence.”

“They talked about having low confidence,” Cheney continued. “I think if you go back and look what I said every single thing I have said, I said if those stories are true, we need to know why the president and vice president were not briefed on them.”

“You pointed to President Trump,” Baier said to Cheney. “My point is, you were GOP conference chair.”

“And I’m just articulating what some of your colleagues have said,” Baier said. “They thought that that was a moment where they thought that your focus on the former president was more important to you than articulating the GOP agenda and what they wished to do.”

Cheney: ‘I remain concerned about the intelligence’

Cheney replied, “I said, if these reports are true, then the White House must explain why they did not brief the President or Vice President.”

The former House GOP Conference Chair continued to defend her actions.

“So, you know, I remain concerned about the intelligence,” Cheney said.

She continued, “I think you will see if you go back and look at the facts about what the intelligence community has said, they have not said those reports are not true. They have said that they’ve got low confidence.”

“And I think it’s an important thing to be concerned about,” Cheney said.

On June 28, Cheney said in a tweet that if the Russia bounty story was true, “the White House must explain: 1. Why weren’t the president or vice president briefed? Was the info in the PDB [Presidential Daily Brief]? 2. Who did know and when? 3. What has been done in response to protect our forces & hold Putin accountable?”

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The New York Times first reported this story in June 2020.

Last month, the Biden administration admitted that it had only “low-to-moderate” confidence that this intelligence was correct.