WASHINGTON (AP) — No. 3 House Republican Liz Cheney was clinging to her post Wednesday as party leaders lined up behind an heir apparent, signaling that fallout over her clashes with former President Donald Trump was becoming too much for her to overcome.
Trump issued a statement giving his “COMPLETE and TOTAL Endorsement” to Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York to replace Cheney. Stefanik, a 36-year-old Trump loyalist who’s played an increasingly visible role within the GOP, responded quickly, highlighting his backing to colleagues who will decide her political fate.
“Thank you President Trump for your 100% support for House GOP Conference Chair. We are unified and focused on FIRING PELOSI & WINNING in 2022!” she tweeted.
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The day’s events left the careers of Cheney and Stefanik seemingly racing in opposite directions, as if to highlight the fates awaiting Trump critics and backers in today’s GOP.
Cheney responded publicly to the calls to remove her from House leadership in an op-ed in The Washington Post on Wednesday evening, writing that the Republican Party is at a “turning point” and must decide whether to accept or reject Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. She contended Trump’s false claims that the election was fraudulent sparked the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and have the potential to further provoke violence again.
“The Republican Party is at a turning point, and Republicans must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution,” Cheney wrote.
Cheney wrote that for the GOP, “the path is clear,” and called on members of the party to support the Justice Department’s investigation into the attack, support a bipartisan review by a commission with subpoena power to produce a report on the insurrection, and “stand for genuinely conservative principles, and steer away from the dangerous and anti-democratic Trump cult of personality.”
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“History is watching. Our children are watching. We must be brave enough to defend the basic principles that underpin and protect our freedom and our democratic process. I am committed to doing that, no matter what the short-term political consequences might be,” the op-ed concluded.
The question is whether the price for political survival in the party now entails standing by a former president who keeps up his false narrative about a fraudulent 2020 election and whose supporters stormed the Capitol just four months ago in an attempt to disrupt the formal certification of Joe Biden’s victory.
President Biden told reporters at the White House that the GOP is in the throes of a “significant sort of mini revolution” and said the country needs two healthy political parties.
“I think Republicans are further away from trying to figure out who they are and what they stand for than I thought they would be at this point,” he said.
Cheney, a daughter of Dick Cheney, who was George W. Bush’s vice president and before that a Wyoming congressman, seemed to have almost unlimited potential until this year. Her career began listing after she was among just 10 House Republicans to back Trump’s impeachment for inciting supporters to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6, when five died.
She has refused to back down on her criticism under heavy pressure from party leaders who’ve aggressively stood by Trump, despite his false claims. Dozens of state and local officials and judges from both parties have found no evidence to support his assertions.
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Combined with a morning endorsement from No. 2 House Republican leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana and tacit support from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, the momentum behind Stefanik’s ascension was beginning to seem unstoppable.
Stefanik, who represents a mammoth upstate New York district, began her House career in 2015 as a moderate Republican.
She spoke out against Trump’s ban on immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries, and joined Democrats in voting against Trump’s effort to unilaterally redirect money to building a wall along the Southwest border. She also led an effort to recruit female candidates for her party.
But she morphed into a stalwart Trump defender and was given a high-profile role during the 2019 House Intelligence Committee impeachment hearings.
That was widely seen as a strategic move by the GOP to soften its image by giving a woman a prominent role. Stefanik’s status and visibility within the GOP have soared since then, and she’s also become a significant fundraiser for the party.
Cheney is the highest-ranking woman in the GOP leadership. Replacing her with Stefanik — and not a man — is seen as politically wise as the party tries to bolster its weak appeal among female voters.
There are just 31 Republican women in the House, about one-third of Democrats’ total but up from the 13 who served in the last Congress.
There were no other visible contenders for Cheney’s post. A closed-door showdown vote by House Republicans on her fate and her replacement, likely by Stefanik, is possible next week.
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Cheney was making little noticeable effort to cement support by calling colleagues or enlisting others to lobby on her behalf, said one House GOP aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the situation. A second person familiar with Cheney’s effort also said she was not lining up votes.
Cheney’s opposition to Trump put her out of step with most House Republicans, including the 138 who voted against certifying the Electoral College vote for Biden’s victory. A handful of others, including Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who voted to impeach Trump, see Cheney as the “truth-telling” GOP leader the nation needs.
Trump’s statement Wednesday underscored his bitter rift with Cheney.
Trump called Cheney “a warmongering fool who has no business in Republican Party Leadership.” He praised Stefanik for supporting his America First agenda and added that she “has my COMPLETE and TOTAL Endorsement for GOP Conference Chair. Elise is a tough and smart communicator!”
Rep. Steve Scalise, the House GOP whip, also is backing Stefanik for Cheney’s post, said Scalise spokesperson Lauren Fine. The Louisiana Republican’s was the first explicit call from House GOP leadership to oust Cheney from her leadership job.
Republicans must focus on gaining House control in the 2022 elections “and fighting against Speaker Pelosi and President Biden’s radical socialist agenda, and Elise Stefanik is strongly committed to doing that,” said the statement from Fine.
Scalise’s backing was first reported by Punchbowl, a political news organization.
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McCarthy said Tuesday that rank-and-file Republicans were concerned about Cheney’s “ability to carry out her job” as a result of her public comments about Trump.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., kept his distance Wednesday from the House GOP struggle. Asked if he would help Cheney, he told reporters in Georgetown, Kentucky, “100% of my focus in on stopping this new administration.”
Some fellow Republicans tried to oust Cheney from her leadership position in February but failed in a secret ballot, 145-61. Republicans say a speech by McCarthy urging his troops to remain unified against Democrats played a major role in Cheney’s survival, and a top House GOP aide has said McCarthy won’t do that this time.
McCarthy appeared on Fox News Channel Tuesday, saying he’d “heard from members concerned about her ability to carry out her job as conference chair, to carry out the message.”
Amanda Kaufman of the Globe Staff, AP reporters Steve Peoples in New York, Bruce Schreiner in Frankfort, Kentucky, and Lisa Mascaro, Jill Colvin, Alexandra Jaffe and Kevin Freking in Washington contributed to this report.