Republicans push Trump critic from No. 3 position
Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney insists she’ll keep trying to wrench the party away from the former president.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., speaks to reporters after Republicans in the House ousted her from leadership. Cheney has repeatedly criticized former President Trump for his false claims of election fraud and his role in the Capitol riot.
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., speaks to reporters after Republicans in the House ousted her from leadership. Cheney has repeatedly criticized former President Trump for his false claims of election fraud and his role in the Capitol riot.
WASHINGTON — Republicans dumped GOP Rep. Liz Cheney from her House leadership post Wednesday for her persistent repudiation of Donald Trump’s election falsehoods, underscoring the hold the defeated and twice-impeached former president retains on his party.
She defiantly insisted she’ll keep trying to wrench the party away from him and his “destructive lies.”
Meeting behind closed doors, GOP lawmakers needed less than 20 minutes and a voice vote to oust the Wyoming congresswoman from her job as their No. 3 House leader.
The banishment, urged by Trump and other top Republicans, showed his ability to upend the careers of antagonists, even those from GOP royalty.
Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, has repeatedly rebuked Trump for his oft-repeated falsehood that his 2020 re-election was fraudulently stolen from him and for his encouragement of supporters who assaulted the Capitol on Jan. 6. On Wednesday she unrepentantly lashed out anew.
“If you want leaders who will enable and spread his destructive lies, I’m not your person,” she told her colleagues before the vote, according to a person who provided her remarks on condition of anonymity.
“You have plenty of others to choose from. That will be their legacy.”
Just minutes after she accused her fellow Republicans of dishonestly buttressing Trump, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters at the White House, “I don’t think anybody is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election.
I think that is all over with.”
McCarthy spoke a week after Trump released a statement saying, “The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE!”
Cheney’s critics say her offense wasn’t her view of Trump but her persistence in publicly expressing it, undermining the unity they want party leaders to display in advance of next year’s elections, when they hope to win House control.
Several also say GOP voters’ allegiance to Trump means the party’s electoral prospects without him would be dismal.
Cheney’s ouster effectively means the GOP is setting a remarkable requirement for admission to its highest ranks: adherence to, or at least silence about, Trump’s fallacious claim about widespread voting fraud. In states around the country, officials and judges of both parties found no evidence to support his assertions.
Cheney, 54, would seem to have an uphill climb in her quest to redirect the GOP away from Trump.
She’s told Republicans she’s not quitting Congress and will run for re-election next year, but she will have to survive a near-certain GOP primary challenge from a Trump-recruited opponent. Even if she returns to the House, it is unclear how loud her voice will be inside a party that has all but disowned her.
And though she has establishment lineage and embraces classical GOP conservative stances, it almost seems the party has evolved out from under her.
Polls show Trump’s hold is deep and wide on the party’s voters. And many of the time-tested conservative views she and her father share – including a belief in assertively projecting U.S. military force abroad – have lost ground to Trump’s inward-focused America First agenda.
Even so, Cheney showed no signs of being bashful about her mission.
Outside the GOP meeting, she told reporters that the country needs a Republican Party “that is based upon fundamental principles of conservatism, and I am committed and dedicated to ensuring that that’s how this party goes forward, and I plan to lead the fight to do that.”
She added, “I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office.”
She defiantly insisted she’ll keep trying to wrench the party away from him and his “destructive lies.”
Meeting behind closed doors, GOP lawmakers needed less than 20 minutes and a voice vote to oust the Wyoming congresswoman from her job as their No. 3 House leader.
The banishment, urged by Trump and other top Republicans, showed his ability to upend the careers of antagonists, even those from GOP royalty.
Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, has repeatedly rebuked Trump for his oft-repeated falsehood that his 2020 re-election was fraudulently stolen from him and for his encouragement of supporters who assaulted the Capitol on Jan. 6. On Wednesday she unrepentantly lashed out anew.
“If you want leaders who will enable and spread his destructive lies, I’m not your person,” she told her colleagues before the vote, according to a person who provided her remarks on condition of anonymity.
“You have plenty of others to choose from. That will be their legacy.”
Just minutes after she accused her fellow Republicans of dishonestly buttressing Trump, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters at the White House, “I don’t think anybody is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election.
I think that is all over with.”
McCarthy spoke a week after Trump released a statement saying, “The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE!”
Cheney’s critics say her offense wasn’t her view of Trump but her persistence in publicly expressing it, undermining the unity they want party leaders to display in advance of next year’s elections, when they hope to win House control.
Several also say GOP voters’ allegiance to Trump means the party’s electoral prospects without him would be dismal.
Cheney’s ouster effectively means the GOP is setting a remarkable requirement for admission to its highest ranks: adherence to, or at least silence about, Trump’s fallacious claim about widespread voting fraud. In states around the country, officials and judges of both parties found no evidence to support his assertions.
Cheney, 54, would seem to have an uphill climb in her quest to redirect the GOP away from Trump.
She’s told Republicans she’s not quitting Congress and will run for re-election next year, but she will have to survive a near-certain GOP primary challenge from a Trump-recruited opponent. Even if she returns to the House, it is unclear how loud her voice will be inside a party that has all but disowned her.
And though she has establishment lineage and embraces classical GOP conservative stances, it almost seems the party has evolved out from under her.
Polls show Trump’s hold is deep and wide on the party’s voters. And many of the time-tested conservative views she and her father share – including a belief in assertively projecting U.S. military force abroad – have lost ground to Trump’s inward-focused America First agenda.
Even so, Cheney showed no signs of being bashful about her mission.
Outside the GOP meeting, she told reporters that the country needs a Republican Party “that is based upon fundamental principles of conservatism, and I am committed and dedicated to ensuring that that’s how this party goes forward, and I plan to lead the fight to do that.”
She added, “I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office.”