Republicans Oust Liz Cheney From Party Leadership For Telling Truth About Election
Because she won’t tell Donald Trump’s lies about the election, Republicans ousted Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) from party leadership.
Republicans voted during an internal party meeting on Wednesday morning to remove Cheney from her position as conference chair, the third-highest rank among Republicans in the House of Representatives.
Ahead of the meeting, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had made it clear that Cheney should get the boot, saying in a letter to members that “our leadership team cannot afford to be distracted from the important work that we were elected to do.”
The distraction? The plain truth. In recent weeks she has been increasingly vocal about the 2020 election and Donald Trump inciting the January 6 riot at the Capitol.
“The 2020 presidential election was not stolen,” Cheney tweeted last week in response to the disgraced ex-president. “Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.”
Cheney was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the attack on Congress. “There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution,” she said before her vote.
The majority of Republicans, including McCarthy, not only voted against impeachment, they also voted to throw out election results, even after a violent mob trashed the building. McCarthy initially blamed Trump for the attack but then rushed to Florida to get back into the disgraced ex-president’s good graces.
Republicans plan to replace Cheney with Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who has parroted Trump’s election lies, including during a podcast interview last week.
On Tuesday evening, Cheney delivered what may be her final speech as conference chair on the House floor. Speaking after a series of pro-Trump Republicans lamented “cancel culture,” Cheney laid into Trump, saying he presents a grave threat to American democracy.
“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,” Cheney said. “He risks inciting further violence.”
In a futile attempt to make her fellow Republicans uncomfortable, Cheney said Trump’s lies disadvantage America in a coming Cold War against China.
“Attacks against our democratic process and the rule of law empower our adversaries and feed Communist propaganda that American democracy is a failure,” she said. “We must speak the truth. Our election was not stolen, and America has not failed.”
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
