Among the 232 votes in the House of Representatives to impeach Donald Trump a second time were 10 cast by Republicans and now the GOP has a messy church fight on its hands. That’s because one of the 10 breaking ranks was Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who chairs the GOP conference. The immediate question for House Republicans is whether Cheney should remain in that post after voting to impeach Trump. But this is a proxy fight. The broader question is whether Trump populism ought to remain Republican Party orthodoxy.
Each side is circulating petitions either supporting or opposing Cheney, though the conflict doesn’t cut the conference in half. At least not neatly. It was members of the House Freedom Caucus that began Wednesday morning by trying to force a debate about forcing her from leadership.
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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy opposes attempts by some Republicans to oust Rep. Liz Cheney from the conference s leadership as punishment for voting to impeach President Trump.
Some Republicans are demanding that Cheney, the conference chairwoman, relinquish her leadership post or that a vote be scheduled to replace her, if necessary, to remove her. But a McCarthy spokesman told the
Washington Examiner on Thursday that the minority leader does not support any effort to replace the Wyoming congresswoman as the No. 3 ranking House Republican. McCarthy, a California Republican, is the first elected House GOP leader to come to Cheney s defense.
The House approved a resolution, 223 to 205, urging Vice President Pence and the Cabinet to use their powers under the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump, with Rep. Adam Kinzinger the only Republican supporting it.
She is the highest-ranking Republican to call for the president s impeachment in the wake of last Wednesday s deadly Capitol Hill riot, which Trump helped incite with lies and incendiary rhetoric.
Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., earlier said he would support impeachment after the president stirred up a mob that attacked the Capitol while Congress counted President-elect Joe Biden s presidential win. Reps. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., later joined Cheney and Katko. The riot left five people, including a Capitol police officer, dead.
In a statement, Cheney said Trump summoned this mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack.