Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney said former President Donald Trump does not have a “role” in leading the Republican Party after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and a looming impeachment trial.
“Chris, we’re the party of Abraham Lincoln. We’re the party of Ronald Reagan,” Cheney told Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace. “We have to really take a hard look at who we are and what we stand for and what we believe in. I think when you look at both his actions leading up to what happened on Jan. 6, the fact that he was impeached in a bipartisan fashion, the fact that he lost the presidency, the fact that we lost the Senate, we have to be in a position where we can say we stand for principle, we stand for [the] ideal.”
“Somebody who has provoked an attack on the United States capital to prevent the counting of electoral votes, which resulted in five people dying, who refused to stand up immediately when he was asked and stop the violence, that — that is a person who does not have a role as a leader of our party going forward,” she continued adding that “we should not be embracing” Trump.
The Wyoming Republican Party on Saturday voted overwhelmingly to censure Cheney and call for her resignation after she joined nine other GOP House members in mid-January to vote in favor of one article of impeachment accusing Trump of incitement of insurrection in connection to the Capitol siege. The censure acts as a rebuke but carries no penalties.
Cheney, despite pressure from her home-town political colleagues, told Wallace she is not going to resign.
“I’m not [resigning], sorry,” she said. “And, look, I think people all across Wyoming understand and recognize that our most important duty is to the Constitution. And as I’ve explained and will continue to explain to supporters all across the state and voters all across the state, the oath that I took to the Constitution compelled me to vote for impeachment, and it doesn’t bend to partisanship, it doesn’t bend to political pressure. It’s the most important oath that we take. And so I will stand by that, and I will continue to fight for all of the issues that matter so much to us all across Wyoming.”
Cheney, the third-ranking Republican in the House, also received backlash from GOP colleagues in the House, including Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who traveled to Wyoming last week to urge GOP authorities to penalize her for her conduct.
“There’s basically two things that Liz Cheney has done in the United States Congress: frustrate the agenda of President Trump and sell out to the forever war machine,” Gaetz told a crowd of about 1,000 people gathered at the steps of the Wyoming Capitol on Thursday. “This is my first time in Wyoming, I’ve been here for about an hour, and I feel like I already know the place a lot better than your misguided representative, Liz Cheney.”
House Republicans voted 145-61 in of favor Cheney keeping her conference leader seat.
Republican Reps. Tom Rice, Adam Kinzinger, and Fred Upton, all of whom voted in favor of impeachment, were either censured or rebuked by their hometown GOP affiliates.
