House GOP ousts Trump critic Liz Cheney from top post (apnews.com)
The expected replacement is Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York. Her voting record is more moderate than Cheney's, although she has expressed staunch support for Trump.
Cheney is sticking to her guns and refusing to support the former president. She will stay in Congress and run for re-election. For his part, Trump is saying he'll find a GOP candidate to oppose her in the next primary.
Lindsay Graham has conceded that Trump's hold on the party faithful is so strong that the party can't succeed without him.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans ousted Rep. Liz Cheney from her post as the chamber’s No. 3 GOP leader on Wednesday, punishing her after she repeatedly rebuked former President Donald Trump for his false claims of election fraud and his role in inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
Meeting behind closed doors for less than 20 minutes, GOP lawmakers used a voice vote to remove the Wyoming congresswoman from her leadership post, the latest evidence that challenging Trump can be career-threatening.
She was Congress’ highest-ranking Republican woman, a daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, and her removal marked a jarring turnabout to what’s been her fast rise within the party.
Cheney has refused to stop repudiating Trump and defiantly signaled after the meeting that she intended to use her overthrow to try pointing the party away from him.
“I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office,” she told reporters.
The expected replacement is Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York. Her voting record is more moderate than Cheney's, although she has expressed staunch support for Trump.
Cheney’s fate had been clear for some time with Trump, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and No. 2 GOP leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana all arrayed against her. GOP lawmakers complained that Cheney’s 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.
Even so, stripping Cheney, 54, of her leadership job stood as a striking, perhaps defining moment for the GOP.
One of the nation’s two major parties was in effect declaring an extraordinary requirement for admission to its highest ranks: fealty to, or at least silence about, Trump’s lie that he lost his November reelection bid due to widespread fraud. In states around the country, officials and judges of both parties found no evidence to support Trump’s claims that extensive illegalities caused his defeat.
Cheney’s replacement was widely expected to be Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who entered the House in 2015 at age 30, then the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Stefanik owns a more moderate voting record than Cheney but has evolved into a vigorous Trump defender who’s echoed some of his unfounded claims about widespread election cheating.
It was initially unclear when the separate vote on Cheney’s replacement would occur.
Cheney is sticking to her guns and refusing to support the former president. She will stay in Congress and run for re-election. For his part, Trump is saying he'll find a GOP candidate to oppose her in the next primary.
Wednesday’s voice vote averted a specific public gauge of how much support Cheney may have had, though it had become clear that sentiment among the 212 House Republicans was strongly for her removal. Cheney, who did little to try to rally support among her colleagues, made clear that she was plunging ahead on her anti-Trump path.
“We must go forward based on truth,” she said. “We cannot both embrace the big lie and embrace the Constitution.”
Cheney has told Republicans she intends to remain in Congress and seek reelection next year in her solidly pro-Trump state. The former president has said he’ll find a GOP primary challenger to oppose her.
Lindsay Graham has conceded that Trump's hold on the party faithful is so strong that the party can't succeed without him.
“Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar,” she said, adding, “I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president’s crusade to undermine our democracy.”
Many Republicans consider a turn away from Trump to be political suicide and agree with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who’s said the allegiance many GOP voters have to the former president is so intense that the party can’t succeed without him.
Trump raced to a rancorous victory lap after Cheney’s removal.
“Liz Cheney is a bitter, horrible human being. I watched her yesterday and realized how bad she is for the Republican Party. She has no personality or anything good having to do with politics or our Country. She is a talking point for Democrats, whether that means the Border, the gas lines, inflation, or destroying our economy. ”