She is one of the most hardline conservatives on Capitol Hill. She comes from Republican royalty. And, as of Wednesday, she is no longer a member of party leadership. Liz Cheney was officially ousted from her post as the No. 3 GOP lawmaker in the House of Representatives over her refusal to go along with the election fraud lies of Donald Trump, which she described in a stirring floor speech Tuesday as a “threat America has never seen before.” “This is not about policy,” the Wyoming representative said on the eve of her exile. “This is not about partisanship. This is about our duty as Americans.”
“Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar,” Cheney continued. “I will not participate in that. I will not sit back and watch in silence, while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president’s crusade to undermine our democracy.”
It was a defiant speech that laid bare the cowardice of her colleagues who, with their vote Wednesday, affirmed what had long been clear: The GOP is the cult of Trump now, and fealty is the price of admission. That had been the case for the four years he was president; it’s how he survived two impeachments and got 147 Republican lawmakers to try to overturn his loss to Joe Biden, even after violent insurrectionists stormed the Capitol in his name. Far from breaking the fever, that deadly day only seemed to draw the party closer to him, with acolytes like Marjorie Taylor Greene making the caucus increasingly inhospitable for the few, like Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who stood up to Trump.
Cheney had already survived one vote from the MAGA wing to strip her of her leadership role earlier this year, much to the chagrin of Trump, who was said to be “livid” at House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for failing to punish Cheney for her impeachment vote. But as the groundswell mounted once again, McCarthy and his deputy, Rep. Steve Scalise, publicly turned against her, all but sealing her fate. Cheney refused to back down, continuing to speak out against Trump’s Big Lie, which the GOP has used as the basis for legislation attacking voting rights in states across the country. “Our freedom only survives if we protect it,” she said Tuesday.
A few Republicans have defended her, with Utah Senator Mitt Romney, the GOP’s 2012 presidential nominee, implying last week that he might leave the party if Cheney was removed. But the party was largely united in purging her and replacing her with Trump loyalist Elise Stefanik. “I’ve always liked Liz Cheney, but she’s made a determination that the Republican party can’t grow with President Trump,” Lindsey Graham told Sean Hannity last week. “I’ve determined we can’t grow without him.”
Cheney, now a martyr for the anti-Trump Republicans, is betting that there are enough conservative voters who want nothing to do with Trump to build a movement around—and plans to play an active role, both on the media circuit and behind the scenes empowering anti-Trump candidates, in loosening his grip on the party. “I will do everything I can do to ensure that the former president never gets anywhere near the Oval Office,” she said in brief remarks to reporters after the voice vote to remove her, which she said was an “indication of where the Republican party is.”
But recent history suggests Graham’s calculation is closer to correct: Trump remains a galvanizing figure for Republican voters, most of whom appear to buy into his delusions, and the depressing truth, for now anyway, is that it’s probably more politically expedient for GOP lawmakers to hew close to Trump than it is to buck him. But what’s politically expedient is not necessarily good for the country, and Republican leaders are making clear that they either believe in Trump’s lies or are willing to put their own interests over democracy itself. In her searing speech Tuesday, Cheney called on her colleagues to change course—to “stand above politics to defend” America. But the plea fell on deaf ears: all but one Republican had cleared out of the chamber as she spoke.
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The Pro-Trump Purge of Liz Cheney Is Now Complete - Vanity Fair
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