Yahoo Finance Who voted to oust Liz Cheney? GOP officially turns its back on the party’s last truth-teller
Liz Cheney
(AP )The fractious Republican Party official jettisoned one of its senior members on Wednesday.
Liz Cheney was ousted from the role of conference chairwoman, a result that had become all but inevitable as the Wyoming congresswoman dared to tell the truth about Donald Trump’s baseless cries of election fraud.
The vote followed a previous attempt to remove Ms Cheney as conference chairwoman in February, following her vote to impeach Mr Trump for after the Capitol insurrection on 6 January.
Why was there a vote?
The vote was scheduled after senior Republicans, including House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, called for Ms Cheney’s removal from her leadership post.
In recent weeks, she aired criticism of Mr Trump for his lies about November’s election. The former president has kept up his bogus claims even after departing the White House.
On the eve of Wednesday’s vote, Ms Cheney told her colleagues that the Republican party would not withstand Mr Trump’s influence. It amounted to a stark warning for Republicans as they chart a future under the enormous shadow of Mr Trump.
"We cannot let the former president drag us backward and make us complicit in his efforts to unravel our democracy," Ms Cheney told her colleagues before the vote on Wednesday. Her colleagues reportedly booed Ms Cheney for the comments.
Who voted to remove her?
The vote was behind closed doors, and took the form of a voice vote.
Among those believed to vote for Ms Cheney’s removal was congresswoman Virginia Foxx, a Trump ally who formally introduced the resolution for the party vote on Wednesday morning.
Mr McCarthy, the most senior Republican in the House, reportedly backed Ms Foxx’s motion, and in recent days formally called for Ms Cheney to go.
Congressman Matt Gaetz, another staunch ally of the former president, has also been a vocal opponent of Ms Cheney.
But beyond those educated guesses, it’s unclear how the vote against Ms Cheney came down. Because it was a voice vote, members were not forced to go on the record and cast a vote against their Republican colleague.
Who will replace her?
Another ally of Mr Trump, Elise Stefanik, is set to replace Ms Cheney as the No. 3 Republican in the House of Representatives.
Ms Stefanik recieved an endorsement from Mr McCarthy and, crucially, from the former president, who called the New York representative a “gifted communicator”. To further twist the knife, Mr Trump called Ms Cheney a “warmonger” – an apparent dig at her father, the former vice president of the United States Dick Cheney.
What is her connection to Dick Cheney?
Ms Cheney is the daughter of Dick Cheney, the former vice president and a stalwart of the Republican party. He is, however, a critic of the Trump administration.
Mr Cheney’s former boss and US president, George W Bush, is another Republican who has criticised the party’s turn towards Mr Trump in recent weeks.
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