House Republicans ousted Representative Liz Cheney (R., Wyo.) from her post as House GOP Conference Chair in a Wednesday morning voice vote, multiple outlets reported.
Cheney is expected to be replaced by Representative Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.), who is backed by former President Trump, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.), and GOP Whip Steve Scalise.
The vote came as Cheney continued to criticize President Trump over his conduct during the Capitol riot in January and his allegation that Democrats “stole” the election.
Rep. Liz Cheney: "We must go forward based on truth. We cannot both embrace the big lie and embrace the Constitution…I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office." pic.twitter.com/jrIwLTdP6t
— CSPAN (@cspan) May 12, 2021
“We must go forward based on truth. We cannot both embrace the big lie and embrace the Constitution,” Cheney said following the vote. “I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office.”
Trump blasted Cheney as “a warmongering fool who has no business in Republican Party Leadership” in his endorsement of Stefanik. Meanwhile, McCarthy was caught on hot mic last week saying he had “lost confidence” in Cheney.
“I think she’s got real problems,” McCarthy told Fox and Friends‘s Steve Doocy in off-air comments obtained by Axios. “I’ve had it with … I’ve had it with her. You know, I’ve lost confidence.”
Stefanik was the only member of the caucus to put her name up for the job as of Wednesday morning and the vote on Cheney’s replacement is expected to take place later in the week.
“We need a unified voice from our leadership team, and I have both the experience and excel at driving a message on offense against the Democrats,” Stefanik told the Washington Examiner on Monday. House members “are very frustrated that rather than prioritizing the message of the conference, there [has been] a prioritization of the individual message of the member who is conference chair and not the overall message of the conference.”
While Stefanik received wide backing for the position, Representative Chip Roy (R., Texas) said on Tuesday that Stefanik’s voting record was not conservative enough to merit the position of Conference Chair.
“With all due respect to my friend, Elise Stefanik, let us contemplate the message Republican leadership is about to send by rushing to coronate a spokesperson whose voting record embodies much of what led to the 2018 ass-kicking we received by Democrats,” Roy wrote in a memo to colleagues.