A resolution under consideration by the national Republican Party that was initially intended to expel U.S. Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger from the House Republican Conference has been changed to call for a censure of the two.
The resolution had been reportedly “watered down” by Republican National Committee members during their annual winter meeting in Salt Lake City, which was held Thursday and was to continue Friday.
“The leaders of the Republican Party have made themselves willing hostages to a man who admits he tried to overturn a presidential election and suggests he would pardon Jan. 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy,” Cheney said Thursday.
“I’m a constitutional conservative and I do not recognize those in my party who have abandoned the Constitution to embrace Donald Trump. History will be their judge. I will never stop fighting for our constitutional republic. No matter what.”
The resolution was altered due to concerns that the attempt Cheney and Kinzinger for serving on the committee investigating the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, had gone “too far.”
If the resolution is approved sometime late Thursday, all 168 RNC members would vote on it Friday. A censure is a formal expression of disapproval with no binding effect.
Cheney was ousted from her post as House Republican Conference chair last May following her vote to impeach former President Donald Trump for the role he allegedly played in inciting the riot. She has also faced much criticism from Republicans due to her refusal to fall in line with the rest of her party.
Cheney voted with Trump more than 90% of the time before her impeachment vote.
A number of conservative officials sent a letter to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, last month, asking him to remove Cheney and Kinzinger from the House Republican Conference.
“As part of Pelosi’s team, Reps. Cheney and Kinzinger have deliberately sought to undermine the privacy and due process of their fellow Republicans, and those of private citizens, with improperly issued subpoenas and other investigatory tactics designed not to pursue any valid legislative end, but merely to exploit for the sake of political harassment and demagoguery,” the letter said.
The letter said that as elected representatives, the two should be free to serve in the House, but no longer with the privileges granted to members of the conference.
The chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel, still recognizes U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney as a member of the Republican Party, despite the fact the Wyoming Republican Party has voted not to do so.
