As House Republicans prepare to remove their conference chairwoman in a vote this week, some GOP members and aides have bristled at the widespread characterization of their leadership battle as a test of loyalty to former President Donald Trump.
Rep. Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, has drawn the ire of many House Republicans and, ultimately, the rest of the GOP leadership team by making persistent comments since January about the pro-Trump riots that rocked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, as well as the election-related chaos that drove them.
TRUMP LOOMS LARGE OVER HOUSE GOP LEADERSHIP BATTLE
But some Republicans argue her all-but-certain removal should not be viewed as a statement on the role Trump fealty will play in the party. They say her fate was sealed instead by a failure to perform the duties of being the conference’s chairwoman and to work collaboratively with other members of leadership — and her own fixation on Trump has allowed opponents to frame the intraparty fight around the former president.
“This isn’t about Trump or even her vote of conscience. It’s about whether you can do your job as lead messenger when you throw the conference off message twice a week,” Montana Rep. Matt Rosendale told the Washington Examiner. “I raised this concern in January and February and warned that it was just a matter of time before she would prioritize herself and media attention over the conference.”
Multiple Republican aides cited, as a source of frustration, the nine other GOP members who voted in January to impeach Trump alongside Cheney but who have since stopped trumpeting their decision to do so. They note that Cheney survived one leadership challenge already — the conference held a vote on keeping her as the chairwoman on Feb. 3, and she won comfortably — so her vote in favor of impeachment shouldn’t be viewed as a driving force behind the desire to remove her.
The calculation on keeping Cheney in leadership shifted dramatically after the House GOP’s policy retreat in Orlando last month. The No. 3 House Republican drew headlines throughout the event for comments about Trump and the election at a time when the conference had hoped to project unity.
Most headlines about the retreat reflected the rift between House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Cheney that had spilled out into the open, with Cheney giving several interviews that fueled the perception of discord between the two leaders.
A senior GOP aide said frustration built among members that Cheney had continued to portray her views as superior to those of her colleagues — long after the impeachment drama had passed.
“Telling everybody that you’re the smartest kid in the class,” the aide said, “that’s not leadership.”
McCarthy backed Cheney during the first vote on retaining her, but he has now thrown his support behind Rep. Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican, who is running internally to replace Cheney.
Some Republicans argue that Cheney’s opposition to the idea of Trump as party leader and her rejection of his unfounded theories about election fraud aren’t actually the problem with her staying in leadership. Instead, her decision to focus on those things in a way that generates press for herself as an individual has eroded her ability to set the message for a conference that wants to look ahead to 2022, they say.
Trump has added to the perception that the leadership showdown is all about him by wading into the issue from afar. He has attacked Cheney relentlessly since January and has boosted Stefanik repeatedly as well, calling her a “gifted communicator” in a statement that also slammed Cheney on Monday.
Critics have also accused McCarthy of backing Cheney’s ouster in an effort to ingratiate himself with Trump and position himself for the speakership should Republicans win back control of the House next year. Democrats and pundits describe the debate as one over whether the party accepts or rejects the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen — an issue many Republicans would like to leave in their rear-view mirrors.
McCarthy on Sunday said Cheney’s public comments have caused problems only because she serves in leadership, not because she made them at all.
“Everyone in leadership serves at the pleasure of the conference,” he said on Fox News. “Any member can take whatever position they believe in. That’s what the voters — [they] vote on the individual, and they make that decision. What we’re talking about is a position in leadership.”
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Cheney is not the only Trump critic in the House, although she is among a small group of them and has attracted few defenders in the party. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Illinois, has been one of the few House Republicans to speak out against the Cheney ouster.
Sen. Mitt Romney, a fellow Trump critic, has defended Cheney as well, along with Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan — also not a Trump booster.
