RAWLINS, Wyoming. (AP) – The Wyoming Republican Party voted overwhelmingly on Saturday to censor US Representative Liz Cheney for voting for President Donald Trump’s impeachment for her role in the January 6 riot on U.S. Capitol Hill.
Only eight of the 74 members of the Republican Party’s central committee opposed censorship in a vote that did not pass a formal count. The censorship document accused Cheney of voting for impeachment, although the U.S. House did not offer Trump a “formal hearing or due process”.
“We need to honor President Trump. All President Trump did was call a peaceful assembly and protest for a fair and audited election, “said Darin Smith, a Cheyenne lawyer who lost to Cheney in the Republican primaries in the U.S. House in 2016.” The Republican Party needs to warn -there . “
Added Joey Correnti, president of the Republican Party in Carbon County, where the censorship vote was held: “The voice of the people is important and, if so, does it only matter at the polls?”
Cheney said repeatedly that he voted for his conscience supporting impeachment for the riot, which followed a rally in which Trump encouraged his supporters to get rid of legislators who “are not good, the Liz Cheneys of the world”.
Far from leading a peaceful demonstration, Trump “summoned this mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame for that attack,” Cheney said in a statement before the January 13 dismissal vote.
In a statement after the state Republican Party vote, Cheney said he remains honored to represent Wyoming and will always fight for the issues that matter most to the state.
“The first one is the defense of our Constitution and the freedoms it guarantees. My vote for impeachment was compelled by my oath to the Constitution, ”said Cheney.
Republican officials said they invited Cheney, but she did not attend. An empty chair labeled “Representative Cheney” was in front of the meeting room.
The censorship vote was the last setback for Cheney for joining nine Republican representatives and all Democrats in the US House in the impeachment vote. Just three months after winning a third term with almost 70%, Cheney already faces at least two Republican opponents in the primary in 2022.
They include Republican state senator Anthony Bouchard, a Cheyenne gun rights activist, who was at the meeting, but not among those who spoke. Smith also said he is considering whether to run for Congress again.
On January 28, Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz led a demonstration against Cheney in front of the Wyoming Capitol. About 1,000 people participated, many of them carrying signs calling for Cheney’s impeachment, although several supported it.
Cheney will remain the third member of the Republican Party leadership, however, following a 145-61 vote by House Republicans on Wednesday to retain her as chairman of the conference committee.
Trump faces trial in the United States Senate on Tuesday for allegedly inciting insurrection when a crowd of supporters invaded and invaded the Capitol following the demonstration led by Trump and close allies.
The opponents of the censorship came mainly from Casper, the second largest city in Wyoming, and from the Jackson Hole area, near the Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks.
“We will resist this infusion of left-wing culture to try to censor and get rid of anyone we disagree with,” said Alexander Muromcew with the Teton County Republican Party.
The impetus for censorship had been building for weeks, as local Republicans in about a dozen of Wyoming’s 23 counties passed their own resolutions criticizing their impeachment vote.
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