Representative Matt Gaetz traveled to Wyoming on Thursday to ask for the removal of Republican Caucus House Speaker Liz Cheney over his vote to oust former President Trump, highlighting the divisions in the Republican Party as he struggles with his identity after the Trump presidency.
Gaetz during the demonstration protested against “neocons”, “eternal wars” and Cheney’s impeachment vote, while accusing Cheney, R-Wyo., Of having blood on his hands. The event can be considered the first campaign rally observed closely from the 2022 Congress primaries.
“Now, Liz Cheney teases me for wearing makeup on my television appearances. Now, makeup only hides the slightest imperfections of the skin. It does very little to hide the soulless corruption of Washington DC,” said Gaetz. He was referring to a comment by Cheney, R-Wyo., A spokesman in response to Gaetz’s rally plans, that “In Wyoming, men don’t wear makeup.”
“It’s very easy for me to get some makeup off my shirt,” continued Gaetz. “Much more difficult for Liz Cheney to take the blood from her hands after sending America’s best to foreign lands to die for unknown gains and personal profits.”
Congresswoman Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Is being criticized by Trump loyalists in the Republican Party for her impeachment vote. (Photo by: William B. Plowman / NBC / NBC NewsWire via Getty Images)
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Meanwhile, in Florida, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy was meeting with Trump in Mar-a-Lago, with the aim of repairing the fences after the former president allegedly took offense at the fact that McCarthy said who was partly responsible for the January 6 attack on the Capitol – a stance that McCarthy later reversed.
“Today, President Trump has pledged to help elect Republicans in the House and Senate in 2022,” McCarthy said in a statement that attributed Trump to helping House Republicans overcome expectations in 2020. “A united conservative movement it will strengthen the bonds of our citizens and defend the freedoms on which our country was founded. “
In recent weeks, McCarthy has also urged House Republicans to be wary of their attacks on each other, with the aim of maintaining any fractures at the internal conference. But just hours after his meeting with Trump, one of the most prominent members of his conference was holding a political rally against one of his leadership team members.
Gaetz during the rally emphasized the effort to remove Cheney as chairman of the Republican Party conference, for which there is no clear timetable at the moment. But at the end of the demonstration, he urged the crowd to vote for Cheney to step down in 2022.
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“We are in a battle for the soul of the Republican Party and I intend to win it,” said Gaetz. “You can help me. You can help me break a corrupt system. You can send a representative who really represents you and you can send Liz Cheney home – back home in Washington, DC. It’s going to be two long years, but let’s go get them. “
McCarthy expressed support for Cheney to remain president of the Republican Party conference, a position that Fox News first reported. McCarthy’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday about the Gaetz rally.
And Trump, while meeting with McCarthy, was in the process of laying out primary challenges for the members of McCarthy’s caucus that Trump believes are not loyal enough to him.
“The president continues to have enormous support and approval among Republican voters in the primaries. He continues to have hundreds of millions of dollars in his campaign account, which he can use,” Cory Lewandowski, Trump’s longtime adviser, told Fox News On thursday. “And he will continue to be actively involved in recruiting candidates and holding elected officials accountable for their votes.”
Lewandowski said Trump would be involved in supporting primary challenges against some of the 10 House Republicans who voted against him.
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“They will all have primary challenges in my opinion,” said Lewandowski. “I don’t know at what level the president will weigh in each of these races, but I think he will be involved in several of them.” And he said the poll on Liz Cheney released last night by Trump’s leadership, PAC, is just the first of many to come over Republicans who oppose the former president.
Gaetz referred to this poll at the Thursday rally, saying “I think our position is right … removing Liz Cheney as the leader of the Republican conference because, based on the numbers I saw, Liz Cheney is less popular with Republicans in her own state that Muammar Gaddafi was among the Libyans. “
He then introduced Donald Trump Jr., who joined the rally over the phone.
“It’s time to change at the top,” said Trump Jr .. “And since the people of Wyoming are clearly not enthusiastic about Liz Cheney, we are going to find someone who can replace her and really do this job well.”
Cheney, for his part, aims to garner support for his place at the Republican Party conference.
“Wyoming doesn’t like it when outsiders come into our state and try to tell us what to do,” said Cheney’s former employee and former state representative.
And in addition to McCarthy’s warm support, Cheney also won the support of a number of leading members of the Republican Party and the party in general.
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“Let’s record the truth: @Liz_Cheney has a lot more backbone than most and is a principled leader with a ferocious intellect,” said Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, on Twitter. “She will continue to be a much needed leader at the conference, with my full support. We can disagree without breaking up.”
Among others who support Cheney are Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo .; Representatives Ken Buck, R-Colo. And Chip Roy, R-Texas, two prominent members of House Freedom Caucus; renowned freshman Rep. Nancy Mace, RS.C .; House GOP Whip Steve Scalise, R-La .; popular freshman Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, RN.Y. and much more.
The House Republican Party conference will have a meeting next week, where there will likely be some internal discussion and complaints about the decision by Cheney and nine other Republicans in the House to vote for Trump’s impeachment for the role he allegedly played in inciting the riot in the US Capitol.
But the process will take longer if members intend to remove Cheney from the position of president of the conference. Trump Jr., Thursday indicated that Trump supporters should take their time. He warned that if many Trump-supporting congressmen run for Cheney, she could hold her seat with the support of less than half the conference.
“We will find the exact opposite of her, and we will fully support that person,” said Trump Jr. at the Gaetz rally. “But we are not going to make that decision today. We have some time. We are going to find the right one, we are not going to split this vote and explode our opportunity to get rid of a RINO.”
Trump’s impeachment – and therefore the saga about Cheney’s vote on impeachment – began after the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill by a pro-Trump crowd.
In the archive photo on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, supporters of former President Donald Trump climb the western wall of the United States Capitol in Washington. The attack on the United States Capitol by an angry mob of Trump supporters shocked many Americans who thought such a violent attack by their countrymen was not possible. This triggered Trump’s eventual impeachment a week later. (AP Photo / Jose Luis Magana, Archive)
Trump made false claims that he won the election for two months, brought together a large group of his supporters in DC on January 6 before Congress and Vice President Pence met to certify President Biden’s victory, and told them to march to the US Capitol.
Trump never explicitly called for violence – in fact, he told his supporters to march “peacefully and patriotically”. But amid his rhetoric about the country’s fate, comments from allies, including Rudy Giuliani calling for “trial by combat” and Trump’s lack of response when his supporters started attacking the Capitol, Trump was initially condemned by many of both leftists and right.
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“The President of the United States summoned this mob, gathered the mob and lit the flame for this attack. Everything that followed was his work. None of this would have happened without the President,” Cheney said in a statement about his vote to condemn Trump. “The president could have intervened immediately and forcefully to stop the violence. He did not. There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the constitution.”
But very quickly, the Republican Party’s anger at the now ex-president has cooled, culminating in a vote by 45 Senate Republicans this week that Trump’s impeachment trial is unconstitutional now that he’s out of office.
And since McCarthy intended to smooth things over with Trump on Thursday, it appears that most of the Republican Party is not ready to divorce the former president – and that Trump plans to be highly involved in the coming years to ensure those who are ready to past your presidency are in exile.
Paul Steinhauser of Fox News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.