Rep. Liz Cheney has run afoul of the Wyoming GOP as the result of her vote to impeach Donald Trump in January and her decision to accept an invitation from Democrats to sit on the committee investigating the Jan. 6th Capitol riot.
Cheney’s participation on the committee — along with that of Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger — gives a patina of bipartisanship to a hyperpartisan effort by Democrats to destroy the Republican Party.
In a largely symbolic vote, the Wyoming Republican Party has decided not to recognize Rep. Liz Cheney as a Republican. The vote came after several local Republican organizations voted to no longer recognize Cheney as a member of the party.
The Cheney camp was none too pleased with the vote.
“It’s laughable to suggest Liz is anything but a committed conservative Republican,” said Jeremy Adler, a Cheney spokesperson. “She is bound by her oath to the Constitution. Sadly, a portion of the Wyoming GOP leadership has abandoned that fundamental principle, and instead allowed themselves to be held hostage to the lies of a dangerous and irrational man.”
Cheney’s falling out with many in her party stems from her repeated criticism of former President Donald Trump and his role in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot. The congresswoman says her vote to impeach Trump after the insurrection, and her criticisms of his attempts to undermine the 2020 presidential election, put principle — and the Constitution — above party.
Her criticisms of Trump and even her vote to impeach the former president could be seen in the context of her personal opinion and her conscience dictating her actions.
Related: Kinzinger Mulls Presidential Run
But taking part in what any political novice can see as a hyperpartisan effort to assist the opposition in destroying the Republican Party is beyond the pale. The party that has given her all these opportunities to rise, who allowed her to access the party GOTV machinery at election time, who gave her money to finance her ambitions — she has abandoned that party. For whatever reason — ambition, or pique — Liz Cheney abandoned the Republican Party long before they abandoned her.
“To further her own personal political agenda, Representative Liz Cheney has not only caused massive disruption, distraction and division within the House Republican Conference, but has also willingly, happily, and energetically joined forced with and proudly pledged allegiance to democrat Speaker of the House Pelosi, as a means of serving her own personal interests while ignoring the interests, needs and expectations of Wyoming Republicans,” the resolution passed stated.
The resolution passed by the state GOP also asked national Republicans to remove her from all committee assignments “and the House Republican conference itself, to assist and expedite her seamless exodus from the Republican Party.”
It isn’t so much that Cheney is popular as it is the fact that most congresspeople from both parties take this kind of excommunication very seriously and rarely take that step. Cheney will stay at least through 2022 when she will be challenged by a Trump-chosen lawyer from Cheyenne, Harriet Hageman. It will be a difficult primary, and Cheney may conclude that the effort won’t be worth it considering her highly reduced status in the party.
She always has a future as a commentator on MSNBC or CNN.
