House Republicans 'concerned' Cheney can't do her job because she criticizes Trump

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday added fuel to the fire following reports that Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney’s time in GOP leadership could be coming to an end.

In an appearance on Fox News, McCarthy said he has “heard from members concerned about her ability to carry out the job as conference chair, to carry out the message.”

“We all need to be working as one to win the majority,” McCarthy said on “Fox & Friends.”

Apparently, working “as one” means not criticizing Donald Trump even as he continues to spread lies about voter fraud and a stolen 2020 election.

Cheney has been calling out Trump’s lies for months, before they helped lead to the deadly insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

In November 2020, Cheney sent a message to Trump to put up or shut up when it came to his accusations of fraud, saying in a statement that if he didn’t have concrete proof “he should fulfill his oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States by respecting the sanctity of our electoral process.”

She also vocally opposed the GOP effort to block the certification of President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory, writing in a Facebook post on Jan. 4, “Congress does not … have the authority to overturn state presidential election results by refusing to count electors and thereby substituting our views for the votes of the people in the states.”

She added, “Doing so would be establishing a tyranny of Congress and stealing power from the states and the people in those states.”

Cheney later voted to impeach Trump for inciting the deadly insurrection at the Capitol and has since said she does not believe he should have any role in leading the Republican Party in the future.

On Monday, Cheney again called out Trump’s lies of voter fraud and said at a private GOP donor retreat, “We can’t whitewash what happened on Jan. 6 or perpetuate Trump’s big lie.”

“It is a threat to democracy,” Cheney said, according to the Hill newspaper. “What he did on Jan. 6 is a line that cannot be crossed.”

Cheney speaking her truth has angered Republicans on Capitol Hill, even as Trump’s behavior helped the GOP to lose control of the House, Senate, and White House after just four years in office.

Republicans had publicly and privately said that Cheney’s time as No. 3 in the House Republican conference should come to an end, but McCarthy’s comments on Fox News Tuesday morning show that the GOP leader is also frustrated with her standing her ground to criticize Trump.

“Republicans don’t want to hear what Cheney has to say — even if she is telling the truth,” Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman tweeted. “So, I can’t imagine we get through this month of May without another snap vote on Cheney’s spot in leadership.”

If Cheney is ousted, that means Republicans are getting rid of the only woman in their leadership ranks.

It’s yet another sign that being against Trump is a bad position for Republicans seeking clout within the party or electoral success at the ballot box in some cases.

For example on Saturday in a special election in Texas’ 6th Congressional District, Michael Wood, a vocally anti-Trump Republican who had the endorsement of fellow anti-Trump Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), finished in a distant ninth place in the race, taking a measly 3.2% of the vote.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.