Liz Cheney asks Fox News viewers to reject Trump after being censored by his state party

A day after being censored by her state’s Republican Party, Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney, the third Republican in the House of Representatives, took to Fox News to defend her vote to impeach former President Donald Trump – and to assert that the GOP will. has lost his way if he does not reject Trump’s policies.

“We lied to people,” Cheney told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday asked about censorship. “The extent to which the president, President Trump, in the months leading up to January 6 spread the idea that the election had been stolen or that the election had been rigged was a lie. And people have to understand this.

Cheney’s decision to explain her rejection of Trump on a Fox News show suggests she was not swayed by weeks of intra-partisan criticism of her vote, or attempts to oust her from her leadership position – and that she wants to persuade Republican voters that her party faction offers a more authentic and enduring vision of conservatism.

Cheney was one of 10 House Republicans who joined Democrats in impeaching Trump for inciting insurgency on the U.S. Capitol in January. And since then, she has faced the consequences of this vote.

After party Trump loyalists called for her ousting from the party leadership for turning on Trump, House Republicans held a secret ballot Wednesday on whether she should retain her No.3 position among colleagues.

She won the vote to stay in her place 145 to 61, but the share of the votes against her was not insignificant, and had the vote been public, experts say it is quite possible that more lawmakers would have come forward. opposed to his continued leadership in order to signal their commitment to Trump to their constituents.

Then, on Saturday, the Cheney State Republican Party approved a censure resolution by a 56 to 8 vote. The resolution says the Wyoming Republican Party will not raise money for her in the future – and asks him to reimburse the State Party donations made to him Campaign 2020.

But on Wallace’s Sunday show, Cheney appeared unfazed and defended his decision to impeach Trump without hesitation.

“Look, I think people all over Wyoming understand and recognize that our most important duty is to uphold the Constitution,” Cheney said. “And as I have explained and will continue to explain to supporters statewide, to voters statewide, the oath I took to the Constitution required me to vote for impeachment,” and that doesn’t bow to partisanship, it doesn’t bow to political pressure, it’s the most important oath we take.

The Wyoming lawmaker said Trump was not only a bad leader for Republicans to embrace, but an existential threat to the nation.

“The greatest threat to our republic is a president who puts his own interests above the Constitution, above the national interest,” Cheney said. “And we had a situation where President Trump claimed for months that the election had been stolen and that he was apparently about to do whatever he could to steal it himself.

Cheney wants to take the GOP back from Trump. It’s a climb uphill.

Cheney’s demand for Fox viewers to turn away from Trump – in which she said she believed the GOP was Ronald Reagan’s party, not QAnon – shows that she is committed to fighting for the return of an older version of the party.

The question is whether she can persuade Republican voters – and his fellow lawmakers – that repudiating Trump is wise for the party after a presidency in which he cultivated an extremely devoted following among the party base.

While polls indicate that most Republicans frown on the Capitol Riot, he also shows that most Republicans don’t think Trump is responsible for the event and that most Republicans line up with Trump’s view that the election was rigged.

For example, a Washington Post-ABC News poll in mid-January found that most Republicans said Trump was not responsible for the assault, and nearly half said Republican lawmakers were not. did not go far enough to support the president’s efforts to overturn the election results. .

According to the survey, about two-thirds of Republican and Republican-leaning participants believed Trump acted and spoke responsibly after the Nov. 3 election.

And a new ABC-Ipsos poll, conducted Feb.5-6, found that only 15% of Republicans back Trump’s conviction in a Senate impeachment trial and barring him from running again.

In other words, if Cheney is hoping that the storming of Capitol Hill would be a wake-up call to Republicans about the dangers of supporting Trump and his wing of the party, it would appear those hopes are unfounded.

Pro-Trump lawmakers have attempted to militarize Cheney’s views against her. Ahead of the House Republican vote on whether she should retain her leadership, Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, one of the party’s fiercest pro-Trump voices, staged an anti-Cheney rally. in his home state and criticized his policies. record.

“Liz Cheney is a lot like Congress – deeply unpopular and vested in interest,” he said at the rally. “She took more money from PACs than from people. She works for them, not for you.

Other lawmakers have also faced strong opposition for voting for Trump’s impeachment. Republican Peter Meijer – a freshman Republican from Michigan and the only first-term Republican to topple Trump – faced angry questions from voters during his first virtual town hall this week.

Meijer said at the event that he believed a majority of Republicans in his district – “maybe a strong majority” – did not agree with his decision to vote for impeachment. But in the end, he stuck with his decision.

“What we witnessed on Capitol Hill – the attempted insurgency, the involvement of a sitting US president spreading the lies that led to it – demanded a meaningful response,” he said. A number of his constituents have reportedly disagreed during mayoral, with some saying they plan to work to overthrow him because of his vote – and a main challenge in Cheney is also underway.