Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan criticized House Republicans on Sunday for booting Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney from her leadership role, saying they are “doubling down on failure.”
Hogan, a centrist Republican, sided with Cheney, who was ousted from her position as the chairwoman of the House Republican Conference on Wednesday after she voted to impeach former President Donald Trump and accused him of perpetuating “the Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was not secure.
“You know, I think it was a mistake [to oust Cheney],” the Republican governor told CNN on Sunday. “Liz Cheney is a solid conservative Republican who voted with the [former] president 93% of the time. I thought she just stood up and told the truth and said exactly what she thought, and to ostracize somebody, remove them from their leadership position, is crazy.”
LARRY HOGAN SAYS GOP TURNING INTO ‘CIRCULAR FIRING SQUAD’ OVER TRUMP
Hogan, a frequent Trump critic and potential 2024 presidential hopeful, defended Cheney on May 9 before House GOP members voted for her removal on May 12, saying the Republican Party is turning into a “circular firing squad.”
The Maryland governor told CNN that Republicans “lost the White House, the House, and the Senate over the past four years,” saying that “to continue to do the exact same thing and to expect a different result is the definition of insanity.”
Cheney became a target for removal for her enduring war of words with the former president, with Cheney saying Trump was no longer the leader of the GOP and refusing to back a potential 2024 presidential bid and Trump vowing to endorse a primary challenger ahead of her 2022 reelection campaign. The Wyoming Republican also blamed Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” she said in a statement on Jan. 13 before joining nine other House Republicans voting to impeach Trump.
While Republicans largely backed Cheney’s removal, saying she was not on message, a smaller group of centrist and Never Trump Republicans, including Sen. Mitt Romney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, has voiced support for the former third highest-ranking member in the House GOP leadership.
Hogan told CNN the GOP needs to “find a way to get the Republican Party back to the party of Lincoln and Reagan.”
“Otherwise, we simply aren’t going to have control, we’re not going to get the White House back, and we won’t have control of the House and the Senate,” he said.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Trump, who enjoys enduring popularity among the GOP base, was impeached on the charge of inciting an insurrection following the Jan. 6 attack. Although 10 GOP members of the House and seven Republican senators supported the charge, he was acquitted in the Senate.
The then-president was previously impeached on two Ukraine-related charges in 2019 before being acquitted in the Senate.
