Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
■ Wyoming’s Republican Party voted to censure Rep. Liz Cheney over her impeachment vote.
Trump impeachment vote draws party’s ire
RAWLINS, Wyo. — The Wyoming Republican Party voted Saturday to censure U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney for voting to impeach President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Only eight of the 74-member state GOP’s central committee stood to oppose censure in a vote that didn’t proceed to a formal count. The censure document accused Cheney of voting to impeach though the U.S. House didn’t offer Trump “formal hearing or due process.”
“We need to honor President Trump. All President Trump did was call for a peaceful assembly and protest for a fair and audited election,” said Darin Smith, a Cheyenne attorney who lost to Cheney in the Republican U.S. House primary in 2016. “The Republican Party needs to put her on notice.”
Added Joey Correnti, GOP chairman in Carbon County, where the censure vote was held: “Does the voice of the people matter, and if it does, does it only matter at the ballot box?”
Cheney has said she voted her conscience in backing impeachment for the riot, which followed a rally where Trump encouraged supporters to get rid of lawmakers who “aren’t any good, the Liz Cheneys of the world.”
Far from leading a peaceful demonstration, Trump “summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” Cheney said in a statement ahead of the Jan. 13 impeachment vote.
In a statement after the state GOP vote, Cheney said she remained honored to represent Wyoming and will always fight for issues that matter most to the state.
“Foremost among these is the defense of our Constitution and the freedoms it guarantees. My vote to impeach was compelled by the oath I swore to the Constitution,” Cheney said.
Republican officials said they invited Cheney, but she didn’t attend. An empty chair labeled “Representative Cheney” sat at the front of the meeting room.