Wyoming congressional candidate Harriet Hageman and her political supporter former President Donald Trump this week both praised the censure of U.S. Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger by the Republican National Committee.
RNC members “overwhelmingly” voted Friday to formally censure the two representatives for their work on the committee investigating the events of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
“Congratulations to the Republican National Committee and its Chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, on their great ruling in censuring Liz Cheney and Cryin’ Adam Kinzinger, two horrible RINOs who put themselves ahead of our Country,” Trump said over the weekend. “They have almost no approval ratings, and the Republican Party would be far better off without them!”
Kinzinger R-Illinois, has announced that he will not run for office after his term ends, and Cheney has not formally announced her campaign for re-election for Wyoming’s lone House of Representatives seat.
Hageman called the House committee a “sham” and noted that Cheney and Kinzinger are the only two Republicans serving on it.
“This is further proof that Liz Cheney has completely lost her ability to be effective in Congress for the people of Wyoming,” Hageman said. “She doesn’t have allies in the Republican Party, and the Democrats only see her as a temporary and useful tool to achieve their partisan ends. She spends every minute of every day engaged in her personal vendetta against Donald Trump, and that is not why Wyoming sent her to Congress.
“Wyoming deserves a representative who fights the battles that are important to the people of our state,” Hageman continued. “The Biden administration is waging an all-out war on our way of life and the ability of our citizens to prosper and support their families. We need someone who will fight Joe Biden and stand up for property rights, constitutional rights, and personal freedoms, and who will push against the relentless overreach of the federal government. When I am Wyoming’s congresswoman, I will always stand for what’s important to the people of this state.”
The resolution adopted by the national committee accused the representatives, through their work on the committee, of participating in a “Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse.”
RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said that wording in the censure was not referring to the riots at the Capitol but rather the actions taken by the House committee investigating the attacks.
Initially, the resolution proposed removing Cheney and Kinzinger from the House Republican Conference, but ultimately this was changed to a formal censure.
The resolution was altered due to concerns that the criticism of Cheney and Kinzinger for serving on the committee had gone “too far.”
The Washington Post also reported that in addition to the censure, the RNC made plans to fund a primary challenge against Cheney in Wyoming. State Republican leaders passed a special rule to recognize Harriet Hageman as the party’s presumptive congressional nominee.
Not all congressional Republicans supported the censure, though.
“Shame falls on a party that would censure persons of conscience, who seek truth in the face of vitriol,” U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney said. “Honor attaches to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for seeking truth even when doing so comes at great personal cost.”
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.
“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 ahead of the resolution vote.
“I’m a constitutional conservative and I do not recognize those in my party who have abandoned the Constitution to embrace Donald Trump,” she continued. “History will be their judge. I will never stop fighting for our constitutional republic. No matter what.”
