STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.

Parody Account

Did former Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney, a Republican, post on X that Republican leaders are "satires of men"? No, that's not true: This post is fabricated, using Liz Cheney's name and likeness but a subtly misspelled handle of "Liz_Choney." At the bottom of the "Choney" post are the words, "Parody by Back Rub." The "Choney" post originated on an X account that states "most of the images" they post are "parodies." The communications director for Cheney told us that Cheney did not post the message in the claim.

The claim appeared in a post on Threads (archived here) where it was published on August 31, 2024. The post, using what appeared to be a screenshot from the X platform, read:

Can you imagine what Republican leaders would say if Kamala Harris assaulted a service person at Arlington so she could illegally use dead veterans for a photo op where she smiled and gave a thumbs up over their graves?

You are satires of men.

This is what the Threads post looked like at the time of writing:

(Source: Threads screenshot taken on Mon Sep 9 14:26:39 2024 UTC)

@Liz_Cheney is the real account belonging to Liz Cheney. Lead Stories searched through Cheney's real X account and could not find the post featured in the claim. The screenshot below shows our negative search results:

(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon Sep 9 16:45:16 2024 UTC)

The text at the bottom of the "Choney" post reads, "Parody by Back Rub."

A reverse image search (archived here) showed that the first time the "Choney" post was found online was on the X account FaithRubPol on August 29, 2024. In the account's bio, creators state that "most of the images" they share are "parodies." Here is the link to the X post (archived here) as it appeared on FaithRubPol.

Lead Stories contacted Cheney about the claim. In a September 9, 2024, email, Cheney's communications director, Jeremy Adler, responded:

... there have already been a number of fact checks observing that Cheney never tweeted this.

Adler then linked to a Reuters article and USA Today article fact-checking the same claim.

The incident at Arlington National Cemetery to which the "Choney" post referred occurred on August 28, 2024. According to news accounts, two members of Donald Trump's presidential campaign had a verbal and physical altercation with Arlington National Cemetery staff.

Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims concerning Liz Cheney can be read here.