Liz Cheney on Tuesday refused to back down ahead of a vote to oust her from GOP leadership, calling Donald Trump a ‘liar on a crusade to undermine our democracy’.
Cheney, who voted to impeach the former president for his role in the January 6 Capitol insurrection, is expected to be ousted from her No. 3 Republican leadership post Wednesday.
She said Tuesday: ‘Our freedom only survives if we protect it. Today, we face threat America has never seen before.
‘A former president who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol, in an effort to steal the election, has resumed his aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him.’
A combative Cheney lashed out at leaders of her own Republican Party late Tuesday adding: ‘Millions of Americans have been misled by the former president.
‘This is not about policy. This is not about partisanship. This is about our duty as Americans. Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar.’
Liz Cheney on Tuesday refused to back down ahead of vote to oust her from GOP leadership, calling Donald Trump a liar ‘on a crusade to undermine our democracy’
The former president spent two days holed up in Trump Tower in Manhattan before he was pictured leaving Tuesday, along with his heavy security detail
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has set a Wednesday vote for removing Cheney from her No. 3 Republican leadership post in a closed-door meeting.
He sent a letter Monday to GOP lawmakers saying it was clear that he and his fellow Republicans ‘need to make a change.’
McCarthy´s letter did not mention Cheney or Trump by name.
But the move comes after Cheney repeatedly challenged Trump´s false assertions pinning his November re-election defeat on widespread voting fraud and criticized Trump´s role in encouraging supporters´ January 6 attack on the Capitol.
Trump was acquitted by the Senate.
Cheney, who voted to impeach the former president for his role in the January 6 Capitol insurrection, is expected to be ousted from her No. 3 Republican leadership post Wednesday
In a defiant last stand Cheney added Tuesday: ‘Our duty is clear: Every one of us who has sworn the oath must act to prevent the unraveling of our democracy.
‘Those who refuse to accept the rulings of our courts are at war with the Constitution.’
The Wyoming Republican said: ‘I will not participate in that. I will not sit back and watch in silence, while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president’s crusade to undermine our democracy.’
Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler, another of the 10 Republican U.S. House members who voted to impeach Trump, says she will vote to retain Cheney in leadership.
Some other Republican lawmakers are said to be concerned Rep. Elise Stefanik, the front runner to replace Cheney, is not conservative enough to be the GOP Conference chair.
U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, one of 10 Republican U.S. House members who voted to impeach Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6, Capitol insurrection, says she will vote to retain Rep. Liz Cheney in Republican leadership
The infighting comes as Republicans struggle to find their path forward after four years of Trump’s presidency left a legacy of division. The debate continues as to whether to embrace the former president or denounce him – with Trump’s allies winning the race to define the GOP.
That battle will accumulate on Wednesday, when the referendum on Cheney’s position as the Number Three in GOP leadership becomes a loyalty test to Trump.
Her ouster is all but a foregone conclusion but the first cracked appeared on Tuesday against Trump’s endorsed candidate to replace Cheney – Elise Stefanik.
Republican Rep. Chris Roy of Texas argued electing Stefanik into leadership would undermine GOP attempts to win control of the House in the 2024 midterm election.
‘We must avoid putting in charge Republicans who campaign as Republicans but then vote for and advance the Democrats’ agenda once sworn in – that is, that we do not make the same mistakes we did in 2017,’ Roy wrote in a letter sent to all GOP lawmakers that was obtained by Dailymail.com.
‘Therefore, with all due respect to my friend, Elise Stefanik, let us contemplate the message Republican leadership is about to send by rushing to coronate a spokesperson whose voting record embodies much of what led to the 2018 ass-kicking we received by Democrats,’ he noted.
Roy opposed conservative efforts to overturn the election results and defended Cheney after she was criticized for being one of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump. But he now concedes her time has come and she will exit leadership when House Republicans gather Wednesday morning in the basement of the Capitol.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, the front-runner to replace Liz Cheney in party leadership
Stefanik, one of Trump’s most public defenders, is campaigning hard to replace Cheney and has the endorsement of McCarthy, Trump, and power conservative Rep. Jim Jordan.
But other conservatives – including some in the powerful House Freedom Caucus – worry she is not far enough to the right for them.
Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming, holds a far more conservative voting record than Stefanik, who brushed off concerns about her credentials Tuesday.
‘We have a great deal of support from the Freedom Caucus and others,’ the New York Republican told reporters on Capitol Hill.
McCarthy, meanwhile, is facing anonymous grumbling for his handling of the matter.
‘Kevin McCarthy has p***ed off enough members of his own conference that he’s going to have to go back to his former days as a whip to try to figure out where his votes are’ to become speaker, an unidentified GOP lawmaker told Politico’s Playbook on Tuesday. ‘I’d be worried if I was him.’
He remains the frontrunner to become House speaker should Republicans win back control of the chamber in next year’s election but there is chatter the drama in the GOP – not just Cheney and Trump but over conservative firebrands Reps. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene – have left him in a tough spot.
McCarthy will address Wednesday morning’s meeting – as he addresses every GOP meeting – with a look to the future.
‘Leader McCarthy speaks at every conference meeting and what the conference’s priorities should be at every meeting,’ a McCarthy spokesperson told DailyMail.com.
Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, who strongly defended Cheney when she faced a recall in February, will now vote against her.
‘House Democrats under Speaker Pelosi have been ruthless in advancing their radical progressive agenda, and Rep. Cheney can no longer unify the House Republican conference in opposition to that agenda. We need to take back the House in 2022 and permanently retire Pelosi,’ he told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
Other Republicans brushed off the squabbling and predicted the GOP would come together.
Republican Whip Rep. Steve Scalise told CBS News on Tuesday that, after the vote: ‘You’re going to see a very united front.’
Cheney, a member of a prominent GOP family and the highest ranking woman in Republican leadership, survived a February attempt in 145-61 in a secret-ballot vote. But Wednesday is not expected to go so well. Punchbowl DC, an insidery newsletter, predicted she would only garner 20 votes of support.
As Republicans focus on winning back control of the House, they are increasingly turning to Trump, who still has a strong and vocal base of MAGA supporters who are expected to be active in next year’s primary and general election.
A few Republicans have defended Cheney, including Senator Mitt Romney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, but most are looking ahead to 2022.
Grumbling has begun among Republicans about the way House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy has handled the situation with Cheney and other drama in the party
Kevin McCarthy has embraced Donald Trump as Republicans seek to win back control of the House of Representatives
Trump repeatedly attacked Cheney after she voted to impeach for his role in the Capitol riot and, last week, blasted her as a ‘warmonger.’
She has given as good as she has gotten.
Last Monday, Cheney she slammed Trump for ‘poisoning our democratic system’ as he continued to falsely spout that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
The 2020 contest showed no evidence of widespread voter fraud. Several recounts in states confirmed Joe Biden’s win. Multiple courts threw out Trump’s legal challenges.
Several Republicans said Trump should have done more to rein in his supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6th.
McCarthy even called him out on the House floor the day, saying Trump bears responsibility for the riot.
Trump erupted in fury. McCarthy flew down to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s residence in Palm Beach, to make peace.
He called Trump a force in the GOP.
‘He could change the whole course of history,’ McCarthy told The New York Times. ‘This is the tightest tightrope anyone has to walk.’