Who Is Liz Cheney & Why Is Her Party Ousting Her?

Representative+Liz+Cheney+after+a+Republican+vote+to+remove+her+from+party+leadership.

Stefani Reynolds via The New York Times

Representative Liz Cheney after a Republican vote to remove her from party leadership.

Mollie Banstetter, Layout Editor of The Ledger

On Wednesday, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming was removed from her position as republican conference chair. After 150 days of the electoral college confirming that Joe Biden would be the 46th president, conservatives in the senate are still fighting the results.

Conservative politicians have backed Mr. Trump since that day, loudly and infamously claiming in outrage, that the results of the 2020 election were fraudulent. Since then, they have been condemning anyone (even republicans who were once fans of Mr. Trump) who holds a dissenting opinion; Ms. Cheney, daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney, being one of them.

Ms. Cheney was in the GOP’s hot seat for having voted to impeach Mr. Trump back in January, after the storming of the Capitol and for repeatedly denouncing any claims of election fraud.

The action of stripping her from her title was done so by a voice vote, instead of holding a recorded vote. Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California recommended they do so to “show unity.” 

After the finalized vote Ms. Cheney had this to say to the press: “…we must go forward based on truth. We cannot both embrace the big lie and embrace the constitution.”

This move of swift castigation from the republican party can be seen as an attempt to save the party’s new reputation of division, those who stand with Mr. Trump and those who don’t. 

The party is now ready to replace Ms. Cheney with moderate but Trump-backing Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York. 

According to CNN, Ms. Cheney won’t let this complication stop her goal of putting an end to Mr. Trump’s allegations, “Cheney has told friends she “does not believe Trump will just fade away” and that she’s planning to wage a protracted political war – through public statements and in the media – against the former President.” However, Ms. Cheney still needs to survive her republican primaries in Wyoming next year to do so. Her future looks a little bleak, considering that Trump’s allies in-office plan on defeating her, in order to completely oust her from Congress.