Cheney challenger says GOP has to work with Trump
WASHINGTON — Rep. Elise Stefanik stated her case Thursday for replacing Rep. Liz Cheney as the No. 3 House Republican leader, implicitly lambasting Cheney’s battles with former President Donald Trump by saying, “We are one team, and that means working with the president.”
The remarks by Stefanik, R-N.Y., a onetime moderate who’s evolved into an ardent Trump champion, came as Cheney seems likely to be tossed from her leadership post next week.
Cheney, R-Wyo., repeatedly has rejected Trump’s false insistence that he lost the 2020 election because of fraud, and she has blamed him for inflaming followers who assaulted the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Speaking on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, Stefanik said she’s committed to “sending a clear message that we are one team, and that means working with the president and working with all of our excellent Republican members of Congress.”
Stefanik repeatedly used “president” in referring to Trump.
Facing opposition from Trump and the House’s two top Republicans — Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Whip Steve Scalise — Cheney has remained defiant.
In an opinion piece in the Washington Post, Cheney implored her GOP colleagues Wednesday to pry themselves from the Trump “cult of personality” and declared that the party and even American democracy were at stake.
“History is watching,” she said.
Trump issued a statement giving his “COMPLETE and TOTAL Endorsement” to Stefanik, 36, who’s played an increasingly visible role within the GOP.
Stefanik responded quickly, highlighting his backing to colleagues who will decide her political future.
“Thank you President Trump for your 100% support for House GOP Conference Chair. We are unified and focused on FIRING PELOSI & WINNING in 2022!” she tweeted.
The careers of Cheney and Stefanik are seemingly racing in opposite directions, as if to contrast the fates awaiting Trump critics and backers in today’s GOP.
The turmoil also raised questions about whether the price for political survival in the party entails standing by a former president who keeps up his false narrative about a fraudulent 2020 election and whose supporters stormed the Capitol just four months ago in an attempt to disrupt the formal certification of Joe Biden’s victory.
In her essay, Cheney denounced the “dangerous and anti-democratic Trump cult of personality,” and warned her fellow Republicans against embracing or ignoring his statements “for fundraising and political purposes.”