Biden on GOP move to oust Cheney: ‘I don’t understand the Republicans’
President Joe Biden on Wednesday offered his first public reaction to the House GOP’s efforts to oust Rep. Liz Cheney from party leadership, saying simply: “I don’t understand the Republicans.”
Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, has faced growing opposition in her role in the No. 3 leadership position and party leaders, including former President Donald Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, have been part of a mounting effort to kick her out.
Biden notably offered Cheney a fist bump last month upon his arrival in the House chamber to deliver his first joint address to Congress.
Cheney is under fire for saying her party cannot accept the “poison” of the idea that the 2020 election was stolen and should not “whitewash” the January 6 Capitol riot.
“We can’t embrace the notion the election is stolen. It’s a poison in the bloodstream of our democracy,” Cheney recently said behind closed doors at a conference in Sea Island, Georgia. “We can’t whitewash what happened on January 6 or perpetuate Trump’s big lie. It is a threat to democracy. What he did on January 6 is a line that cannot be crossed.”
And while once a powerhouse of the GOP, her criticism of Trump’s attack on democracy and her unwillingness to comply with leadership’s idea that her party should follow Trump, have put her leadership position in danger.
On Wednesday, Trump endorsed Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York to replace Cheney as conference chair. And McCarthy has been in contact with the former President about the effort to oust Cheney, according to Trump adviser Jason Miller.
McCarthy said on Fox News on Tuesday that Cheney is not “carrying out the message” of the party and he has been privately supporting Stefanik. The No. 2 member of House Republican leadership, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, has publicly endorsed Stefanik’s bid.
Two sources familiar with Cheney’s conversations with members said the Wyoming Republican feels at peace with where she has stood on the election, on January 6 and her comments about Trump. Her calculation is that it is not worth trying to keep the leadership position if it requires lying about the election or the events that transpired leading up to January 6.
