Mitch McConnell
Photographer: Sarah Silbiger / Bloomberg
Photographer: Sarah Silbiger / Bloomberg
Senate Republican Party leader Mitch McConnell took the rare initiative to weigh in on an internal conflict between House Republicans, praising Congresswoman Liz Cheney for her “deep convictions” and “courage” while facing attacks from former Allies. President Donald Trump.
Cheney, the Republican Party’s third leader in the House, was criticized for her vote to impeach the former president, as well as her criticism of his words and actions.
“Liz Cheney is a leader with deep convictions and the courage to act on them,” McConnell said in a statement. “She is an important leader in our party and in our nation. I am grateful for her service and look forward to continuing to work with her on the crucial issues facing our nation. ”
McConnell’s support for Cheney is a clear sign of the struggle within the Republican Party over how much influence Trump will continue to exercise, even after losing the White House to Democrat Joe Biden and the Republican Party losing control of the Senate. Trump’s actions in fanning the crowd that invaded the Capitol last month, for which he was accused by the U.S. House for the second time without precedent, divided Republicans in a way that few of the political battles of the past four years have done.
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He comes before a meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, of House Republicans convened by its leader, Kevin McCarthy. Several lawmakers and advisers said that Cheney’s role as president of the Republican conference will certainly appear.
Some members, including Ohio Representative Jim Jordan and Arizona Representative Andy Biggs, have called for Cheney to be removed from his leadership post. Last week, Florida deputy Matt Gaetz, who had a close alliance with Trump, went to Cheney, Wyoming’s home state for a demonstration in which he denounced her. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., called the event in Cheyenne.
But it is not clear whether a sufficient number of Republicans would vote to expel Cheney.
McCarthy said that while she still supports her, she will have to respond to the conference. Any vote to remove it would be private, and no one on either side of the dispute would know who did what.
‘It was never a big betrayal’
Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, was the highest-ranking Republican calling for Trump’s removal from office, saying that “there has never been a greater betrayal by a president of United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution. “
Photographer: Al Drago / Bloomberg
Cheney voted against Trump’s impeachment in late 2019, but had further public breaks with the now former president and his Republican House supporters before last month’s impeachment vote. This included disagreements over foreign policy, how Trump handled the coronavirus pandemic and his support for a leading challenger to Republican Representative Tom Massie of Kentucky.
Cheney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on McConnell’s comments.
Some of the other nine House Republicans who voted for Trump’s impeachment also came under pressure from within the party and from Republican Party officials in their home states. They, like Cheney, can face the main challenges.
McConnell also released a statement on another issue that McCarthy and House Republicans are facing: the provocative positions taken by Georgia’s representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. House Democrats are threatening to force a vote to remove Greene from his committee duties if Republicans do not discipline her.
Although he did not name it specifically, McConnell said, “Crazy lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country.”