Why Republicans believe they're right to oust Liz Cheney
by Byron York, Chief Political Correspondent |
| May 11, 2021 11:47 PM
House Republicans will hold a meeting Wednesday at which members are expected to remove GOP Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney from her place in the party leadership. The vote will be the most dramatic development yet in Cheney's growing estrangement from her GOP colleagues.
The conflict began on Jan. 13, when Cheney, along with nine other House Republicans, voted to impeach President Donald Trump on a charge of inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. (In 2019, in the first Trump impeachment, Cheney voted no on both articles against the president.) Cheney's attention-getting posture in January — she put out a press release announcing her intention the day before, irritating some Republicans — prompted complaints that she wasn't on board with party leadership. On the other hand, the House GOP leadership knew that, unlike 2019, some Republicans would vote to impeach the president, even though Trump only had 168 hours left in his term. There were no leadership plans to punish any member for voting against Trump. Indeed, Republican lawmakers who voted to impeach kept their positions in leadership and on committees.
But Cheney felt a mission to keep pushing against Trump, even as he became a former president living in Palm Beach. Cheney's outspokenness grated on some Republicans, and on Feb. 3, some unhappy lawmakers demanded a vote on Cheney's future in party leadership.
Cheney won a strong show of support, keeping her post by a secret-ballot vote of 145 to 61.
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