Posts tagged with "GOP has kept Rep Liz Cheney in leadership"

February 5, 2021

House Republicans have voted to keep Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming in party leadership, despite her harsh criticism of former President Donald Trump’s role in inciting the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

However, they have declined to deprive Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) a Trump loyalist, of her committee seats, despite her comments embracing conspiracy theories and political violence—and her one-time threat “to put a bullet in [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi’s head.”

.After a dizzying week of recriminations, both Cheney and Greene remained within the fold of the House GOP, highlighting Republicans’ efforts at stitching together a still-fractious party, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Facing Democrats’ demands that Greene be stripped of her committee assignments, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R- California) condemned her comments but declined to take further steps. With no action from Republicans, Democrats scheduled a full House vote for Thursday, February 4, aiming to remove Greene from the education and budget committees.

“Past comments from and endorsed by Marjorie Taylor Greene on school shootings, political violence, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories do not represent the values or beliefs of the House Republican Conference,” McCarthy said, according to the Journal.

He said that he stressed in a private meeting with Greene on Tuesday night that she must now hold herself to a higher standard as an elected official. He also said that she apologized for her comments during Wednesday’s closed-door party meeting.

At that same gathering, Cheney defeated a motion from Trump’s allies to oust her as House GOP conference chairwoman in a 145-61 vote, conducted by secret ballot after hours of intense debate.

Republicans made clear Wednesday night that “we’re not going to be divided and that we’re not going to be in a situation where people can pick off any member of leadership,” Cheney said after the vote.

The two debates highlighted the fierce infighting roiling the party as it seeks to define itself after Trump’s election loss—and the eagerness of  McCarthy to knit

As the Journal reports, Cheney was the only member of GOP leadership—and one of ten House Republicans overall—to vote to impeach Trump last month on allegations that he incited the violent mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol.

During Wednesday’s marathon meeting, Cheney said she wouldn’t apologize and didn’t regret her vote, but sought to give more context for the timing of her statement, which she released the night before the impeachment vote. In that statement, she said of Trump: “There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”

Research contact: @WSJ