- Congresswoman all but certain to lose conference chair role
- Cheney rejected by Republicans for criticizing former president
2.23pm BST
Liz Cheney’s likely removal from House Republican leadership demonstrates the immense influence that Donald Trump still wields over the party, even though he left office nearly four months ago.
Republican leaders are signaling that they will embrace Trump and his policy positions even more as the 2022 midterms draw near. Most of the Republican base remains loyal to the former president, and the party needs those voters to turn out next November in order to take back Congress.
2.16pm BST
Republicans are using the language of “unity” to justify ousting Liz Cheney from her role as House GOP conference chairwoman.
The AP reports:
The House GOP, led by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, is moving toward stripping Rep. Liz Cheney of her leadership post for her frequent criticism of former President Donald Trump. The unusual step, they say, is necessary to unify a party whose base still reveres the former president four months after he incited a deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol. …
With Republicans close to reclaiming control of the House next year, the treatment of Cheney suggests GOP leaders will do almost anything to rally the party’s base, even if that means sweeping the events of Jan. 6 under the rug and embracing — or refusing to confront — Trump’s ongoing lie that he won the 2020 election, a campaign that he actually lost by a wide margin.
Those backing Cheney’s ouster argue she has become a distraction by continuing to criticize Trump, who remains the dominating force in the party. They want to move forward, they say, and focus on policy ideas and providing a clear contrast with Democrats. But critics see the fight as a larger distraction. ‘My unsolicited advice would be: Talk about the future and what you offer to Americans,’ said Alyssa Farah, the former Trump White House communications director. ‘I do worry that this is sort of showing that we’re going to continue more the politics of personality as opposed to the politics of policy and deliverables to the American public.’
2.04pm BST
Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.
It is looking increasingly likely that Liz Cheney will be ousted from her role as House Republican conference chairwoman because of her criticism of Donald Trump.