House Republicans oust Rep. Liz Cheney as GOP conference chairman!
WASHINGTON (PNN) - May 12, 2021 - House Republicans voted Wednesday to oust Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) from her House leadership position amid a public spat between her and other House GOP leaders following her increasingly critical comments about President Donald Trump and the Party’s messaging.
After she was voted out, Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, told reporters that she will work to prevent President Donald Trump from returning, but stressed she didn’t feel betrayed by her fellow House Republicans.
An election for who will become the House Republican chair will occur at a later date. It’s not clear when.
Leading up to the vote, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Kalif.) and Whip Steve Scalise (Lou.) threw their support behind Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y) to be the House Republican Conference chairman. Stefanik tweeted on Wednesday that she is officially campaigning to take Cheney’s spot.
In recent weeks, McCarthy and other Republicans in the House increasingly started publicly questioning Cheney’s leadership ability, arguing that the House Republican Conference chair position essentially serves as a unifying voice within the Party and suggested Cheney’s rhetoric was becoming increasingly divisive as Trump is the most popular figure in the GOP.
McCarthy argued that the bid to oust her wasn’t triggered because of her vote against Trump during his second impeachment. Instead, it was because Cheney’s comments were off-message as Republicans attempt to retake the House during the 2022 midterms, he said in a letter earlier this week.
In a statement on Wednesday, Trump said he was anticipating her removal, saying that “Cheney is bad for our country and bad for herself,” adding that voters in Wyoming are “[looking] forward to her ouster.”
