CHENEY SNARED IN GOP SCHISM
Criticism of Trump and his election lies could cost Wyoming representative her House leadership post
House Republican leaders moved forward quickly Wednesday with expelling Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming from her leadership post for criticizing former President 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 NewYork 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, which
is why Whip Scalise has pledged to support her for conference chair.”
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.
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.
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.
Her fate has once again become a bellwether for the direction of the Republican Party, with implications for its chances of wresting control of the House in 2022, and a test of whether loyalty to Trump and a tolerance for misinformation have overtaken conservatism as its guiding orthodoxy.
Cheney showed no signs of backing off in an opinion essay posted Wednesday by The Washington Post.
She 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.”
She said McCarthy has “changed his story” after initially saying Trump “bears responsibility” for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. McCarthy, who is tacitly backing the drive to oust her, has since said Trump issued a video to try halting the violence.
Cheney, in her article, agreed with Democrats that a bipartisan investigation should focus solely on the riot and not on disturbances at some of last summer’s racial justice protests. In an apparent reference to her own situation, she said she would defend “basic principles” of democracy, “no matter what the short-term political consequences might be.”
Dozens of state and local officials and judges from both parties have found no evidence to support Trump’s assertions that he was cheated out of an election victory.
Stefanik, whorepresents a rural upsate New York district that Barack Obama won twice and was subsequently won twice by Trump, once styled herself as an establishment Republican in a similar vein to Cheney. She worked in former President George W. Bush’s administration and for former House Speaker Paul Ryan when he was the 2012 vice presidential nominee, before becoming the youngest woman elected to the House.
But as Trump ascended, she quickly refashioned herself as one of his most strident loyalists.
Scalise’s endorsement comes as Stefanik and her allies have ramped up their efforts to win support. In recent days, she has quietly reached out to Republicans to gauge their interest in supporting her for the No. 3 position, according to people familiar with the private discussions, and lawmakers close to her have begun to publicly express confidence that she will win the leadership spot.
Trump issued a statement giving his “COMPLETE and TOTAL Endorsement” to Stefanik. He called Cheney “a warmongering fool who has no business in Republican Party Leadership.”
President Joe Biden told reporters at the White House that the GOP is in the throes of a “significant sort of mini revolution” and said the country needs two healthy political parties.
“I think Republicans are further away from trying to figure out whothey are and what they stand for than I thought they would be at this point,” he said.
Cheney is the highest-ranking woman in the GOP leadership. Replacing her with Stefanik and not a man is seen as politically wise as the party tries to bolster its weak appeal among female voters.
There are just 31 Republican women in the House, about one-third of Democrats’ total but up from the 13 who served in the last Congress.