GOP Keeps Cheney in House Leadership After Controversial Impeachment Vote
House Republicans decided Wednesday to stand by two polarizing GOP lawmakers, voting to retain Rep. Liz Cheney as their No. 3 leader and saying they’d fight a Democratic push to kick Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene off her committees.
In a 145-61 secret ballot vote, House Republicans rebuffed a bid to toss Cheney from leadership after she voted last month to impeach then-President Donald Trump.
Hours earlier, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy criticized the Democratic effort to remove Greene from her committees.
“Two years from now, we’re going to win the majority,” he told reporters. “That’s because this conference is more united. We’ve got the right leadership team behind it.”
“This is about the direction of our party and whether or not we’re going to be a majority who’s dedicated to just one person or we’re going to be a united Republican majority,” said Rep. Jaime Herrera-Beutler, who with Cheney was among 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump.
“I won’t apologize for the vote,” Cheney told her colleagues during a lengthy meeting, according to a person familiar with the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity.
McCarthy told reporters he’d defended Cheney.
“People can have differences of opinion. That’s what you can have a discussion about. Liz has a right to vote her conscience,” McCarthy said.
Some said Greene apologized to her colleagues for supporting the QAnon conspiracy theory, though there were conflicting, vague reports of exactly what she’d said.
“She was contrite. And I think she brought a lot of people over to her side,” Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie said.
The day’s action began when the Democratic-led House Rules Committee cleared the way for a vote to punish Greene. After that meeting, McCarthy released a statement saying Democrats were “choosing to raise the temperature” by attempting a “partisan power grab.”
He condemned Greene’s past endorsements of conspiracy theories and said the first-term congresswoman had acknowledged in a private conversation that she must meet “a higher standard” as a lawmaker.
“I hold her to her word, as well as her actions going forward,” McCarthy said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has lambasted Greene, saying “loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country.”
A House vote on Greene’s committee positions was expected on Thursday. Greene serves on the Education and Labor Committee and on the Budget Committee.
McCarthy said Democrats turned down his offer to move Greene onto the House Small Business Committee instead.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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