For over five years, Donald Trump loudly trumpeted the conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States, known as birtherism. Per ABC News, he had pushed for the public release of Obama’s birth certificate since 2011, and continued to question its authenticity up until his first run for president in 2016. Liz Cheney never embraced the falsehood to the degree that Trump did, but she showed a similar willingness to entertain it years before Trump began meddling in Republican politics.

While appearing on “Larry King Live” in 2009 (via Media Matters for America), Cheney was asked about birtherism. While Cheney did eventually reject the claim that Obama was born in Kenya, she offered a defense for people who believed so. “One of the reasons you see people so concerned, I think this issue is, people are uncomfortable with having for the first time ever, I think, a president who seems so reluctant to defend the nation overseas.”

The following year, Cheney gave a speech before the Center for Security Policy. While the CSP was originally viewed as a respectable foreign affairs think tank, the Southern Poverty Law Center has since branded it a far-right, anti-Muslim hate group. Its founder, Frank Gaffney, has regularly promoted conspiracy theories, including birtherism (according to Reason Magazine). Cheney didn’t echo birtherism in her CSP speech, but she did claim that the “Obama doctrine” consisted of apologizing for America, abandoning allies, and appeasing enemies in the Middle East.

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