House Republicans to vote Wednesday on whether to oust Cheney from leadership

House Republicans will vote Wednesday on whether to oust Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, from her post as the third-ranking member of leadership, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., announced.

Cheney has criticized former President Donald Trump over his false ased sertions that the 2020 election was stolen from him, and she has denounced the role that he played in the Jan. 6 attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol. Her fellow Republicans have largely responded by demanding her removal from party leadership or remaining silent.

“If we are to succeed in stopping the radical Democrat agenda from destroying our country, these internal conflicts need to be resolvso as to not detract from the efforts of our collective team,” McCarthy said Monday in a letter to fellow Republicans. “Having heard from so many of you in recent days, it’s clear that we need to make a change. As such, you should anticipate a vote on recalling the Conference Chair this Wednesday.”

The letter was first reported by Punchbowl News.

House Republicans have said they wanted Cheney to move on from her differences with Trump, arguing that they served as a distraction for the party and that the sole focus should be on winning the House majority in the 2022 midterm elections.

But Cheney has made clear that she is ready to lose her leadership position rather than condone or stay quiet about Trump’s actions, warning that they are a threat to democracy.

“History is watching. Our children are watching,” she wrote last week in an opinion piece published by The Washington Post. “We must be brave enough to defend the basic principles that underpin and protect our freedom and our democratic process. I am committed to doing that, no matter what the short-term political consequences might be.”

In his letter Monday, McCarthy said that “unlike the left,” Republicans “embrace free thought and debate,” but that the House GOP leadership “cannot afford to be distracted from the important work we were elected to do and the shared goals we hope to achieve.”