McCarthy backs rival of Cheney in GOP primary

WASHINGTON — Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, endorsed Rep. Liz Cheney’s GOP rival for Wyoming’s sole congressional seat, taking the unusual step of intervening in a party primary to oust a onetime ally who has become the prime political target of former President Donald Trump.

McCarthy said he was backing Harriet Hageman, a pro-Trump candidate who has repeated the former president’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, in a race that has become a prominent test for the Republican Party.

“I look forward to welcoming Harriet to a Republican majority next Congress, where together, we will hold the Biden administration accountable and deliver much-needed solutions for the American people,” McCarthy said in a statement Thursday.

It was an extraordinary move for a leader who is aiming to become speaker of the House if his party wins control of Congress in November’s midterm congressional elections, and has worked to toe a fine line between his far right flank and more mainstream conservatives.

Congressional leaders rarely involve themselves in primary races against sitting members, but McCarthy’s move was the latest escalation of the Republican Party effort to exile Cheney for speaking out forcefully against Trump and participating in a House investigation of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. After initially defending her, McCarthy last year led a push to strip Cheney of her No. 3 position in House GOP leadership.

McCarthy’s endorsement came about two weeks after the Republican National Committee voted to censure Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., for participating in the inquiry into the deadly riot at the Capitol. The resolution said the pair were involved in “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse,” the party’s clearest statement to date that it considered the riot and the efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election that fueled it defensible.