Republicans close to ousting Cheney from No. 3 post
House Republican leaders moved quickly on Wednesday to expel Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming from her leadership post for criticizing Donald Trump and his election lies, as their No. 2, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, publicly backed ousting her and the top leader privately lobbied for a replacement.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for Scalise said he supported Rep. Elise Stefanik, the New York Republican who has emerged as the leading contender to replace Cheney as Republican Conference chair, the No. 3 leadership position. Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader, was less public, but lawmakers said he was pushing colleagues privately to support Stefanik, a close ally.
“House Republicans need to be solely focused on taking back the House in 2022 and fighting against Speaker Pelosi and President Biden’s radical socialist agenda,” said Lauren Fine, Scalise’s spokeswoman. “Elise Stefanik is strongly committed to doing that.”
It was a remarkable show of force by the party’s top two leaders to run out a once-popular figure now deemed unacceptable by fellow Republicans because she has rejected Trump’s lies and refused to absolve him or the party of its role in perpetuating the false claims of a fraudulent election that fueled the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Trump issued a statement giving his “COMPLETE and TOTAL Endorsement” to Stefanik.
Stefanik, 36, whose voting record is far less conservative than Cheney’s, became a vocal supporter of Trump in recent years, playing a prominent role defending him during his first impeachment trial and voting in January to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost.
“Thank you President Trump for your 100 percent support for House GOP Conference Chair,” Stefanik tweeted.
The bid by top party leaders to install her as a replacement increased the likelihood that Republicans would move as early as next Wednesday to replace Cheney.
Jeremy Adler, a spokesman for Cheney, signaled Wednesday morning that she was gearing up for a messy fight.
“Liz will have more to say in the coming days,” he said. “This moment is about much more than a House leadership fight.”
Cheney was showing no signs of stepping down voluntarily.
Cheney’s opposition to Trump put her out of step with most House Republicans, 138 of whom voted against certifying the Electoral College vote for Biden’s victory. A handful of others, including Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who voted to impeach Trump, see Cheney as the “truthtelling” GOP leader the nation needs.
Data compiled by CQ Vote Watch shows Cheney voted the same way other Republicans did far more often than Stefanik did during Trump’s presidency, especially after Democrats took control of the House in 2019. Cheney’s “party unity score” was never lower than 96 percent from 2017 through 2020, while Stefanik’s scores were at 88 percent and 87 percent in 2017 and 2018, dropped to 68 percent in 2019, and then rose to 82 percent in 2020.