Rep. Liz Cheney faces a career-defining moment that threatens her meteoric political ascent after revealing she will vote to impeach President Trump on charges of inciting grassroots supporters to storm the United States Capitol as part of a brazen attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
Voting to impeach Trump will put Cheney at odds with a majority of colleagues she leads as the No. 3 ranking House Republican. Three-quarters of them, or more, are likely to oppose the single article of impeachment when the House votes Wednesday. Cheney also could find herself on thin ice with constituents in Wyoming, a state that delivered more than 70% of its November vote to the outgoing president, with impeachment possibly sparking a 2022 primary challenge.
Those factors complicate Cheney’s leadership ambitions, which include becoming the first Republican woman speaker. But the House Republican Conference chairwoman, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, brushed political concerns aside in announcing she would break with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana and vote to impeach Trump.
“The president of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the president,” Cheney said in a published statement. “There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”
Cheney’s strong support for impeachment comes on the heels of her conspicuous vote to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory and refusal to back Trump’s unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen. She broke with McCarthy and Scalise on that issue as well, not to mention well over half of her fellow House Republicans.
With Trump’s standing intact among most GOP voters and the majority of House Republicans, despite his role in the Capitol siege, Cheney risks derailing her rise in the leadership ranks, if not her House career altogether, party operatives say. “Impeachment? I think that may be a bridge too far,” said a GOP congressional aide who questioned whether Cheney could survive in leadership after crossing Trump so boldly.
A Republican operative supportive of Cheney agreed the congresswoman is not doing herself any favors with this vote. But this party insider said politics was a secondary concern, especially after the Capitol was overrun and ransacked by Trump’s “MAGA” supporters on Wednesday in the middle of Congress meeting in joint session to certify the results of the Nov. 3 election after the president encouraged them to march on Capitol Hill to “stop the steal.”
“They’re fully aware that this is not helpful back home, that she’s thumbing her nose at the Wyoming GOP base as it exists today,” this Republican operative said.
