Former Republican President George W. Bush entered the escalation of the Republican Civil War over the impeachment of Donald Trump on Friday after Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz met to defeat Congressman Liz Cheney in his home state of Wyoming.
As the Republican Party struggles with its future under President Joe Biden, the civil war intensifies after 10 House members vote in favor of Trump’s impeachment for allegedly inciting the deadly uprising on January 6. Bush spoke a day after Gaetz criticized Liz Cheney – the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney – the third House Republican who joined nine others in the impeachment vote.
Freddy Ford, Bush’s chief of staff, told CNN on Friday that the former Republican president is not “thinking about the next election cycle yet,” but said he “plans to call Vice President Cheney tomorrow for two reasons. : to wish you a happy 80th birthday, and to thank you for your daughter’s service. “
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The show of support comes when Cheney faces mounting criticism from the Republican Party for her “vote of conscience” for impeachment, with several Trump allies in the House calling on her to step down from her leadership role for breaking with the Republican Party.
On Thursday, Gaetz campaigned against Cheney in Wyoming, asking voters to remove her in the next election cycle by voting for Trump’s impeachment.
“We are in a battle for the soul of the Republican party and I intend to win it,” the Florida lawmaker told a crowd of Trump supporters and counter-protesters. “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”
Cheney’s vote for impeachment sparked a backlash in his state, which saw almost 70% of the votes in Trump in November. Republican state senator Anthony Bouchard, who will run against Cheney in 2022, has already started campaigning against his impeachment vote.
“There was not a time during our tenure when we saw that kind of shout from our Republican colleagues, with anger and frustration being palpable in the comments we received,” said Bouchard on January 13.
In addition, more than 55,000 Americans supported a Change.org petition to “repeal” Cheney.
“You are a Republican, you must support your party anyway,” Shelley Horn, a Wyoming resident who initiated the petition, told CNN. “You just can’t say, ‘Oh, well, I need to vote with my conscience.’ No! Vote for what your people put you there to do. “
Cheney rejected resignations. “I’m not going anywhere,” she told reporters on Capitol Hill. “This is a vote of conscience. It is one in which there are different points of view in our conference.”
Other House Republicans who voted for impeachment also faced retaliation for breaking with the party. On Saturday, the Republican Party of South Carolina voted for Congressman Tom Rice’s official censorship of his impeachment vote.
“We made our disappointment clear on the night of the impeachment vote. Trying to impeach a president, with a week left of his term, is never legitimate and is nothing more than a political kick to get out the door,” said the Republican Party of Carolina South President Drew McKissick in a statement.
Newsweek contacted Cheney’s office for comment.
Updated at 8:07 pm Eastern time: to include Drew McKissick’s comment.