House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., is likely to lose her leadership post within the next several weeks as pressure for change builds around House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., from a GOP caucus increasingly at odds with the old guard, establishment Cheney, who's seemed to delight in recent weeks in courting Democrats and clubbing former President Donald Trump.
Although Cheney survived a vote to remove her soon after she voted to impeach Trump in January, hostilities between her and McCarthy flared up again last month after she broke with his messaging on the 2020 election and the Capitol investigation commission.
More recently, she's continued her assault on Trump, who remains wildly popular among the House GOP caucus and nationwide Republican electorate, tweeting "The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system."
McCarthy denied Cheney's impeachment vote -- which earned her a censure from the Wyoming GOP -- was still a concern, but told Fox News on Tuesday that some of his GOP members have expressed worries about "her ability to carry out the job" and focus on "the message."
"There's no concern about how she voted on impeachment. That decision has been made," McCarthy told "Fox & Friends." "I have heard from members concerned about her ability to carry out the job as conference chair, to carry out the message. We all need to be working as one if we're able to win the majority. Remember, majorities are not given, they are earned. And that's about the message about going forward."
He added: "Combating [President] Joe Biden, what he's done to this border by making it unsecure and what's coming across. Just what he's doing here about small businesses, not opening schools, not getting us back to work, back to health, back to normal. That's the message we should be talking about.
"I haven't heard members concerned about her vote on impeachment. It's more concerned about the job ability to do, and what's our best step forward that we can all work together instead of attacking one another."
Axios reported on Monday that House Republicans are looking to replace Cheney with another woman, and Reps. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Ann Wagner, R-Mo., and Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., are top contenders.
The office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., released a statement on the Axios report with the headline: "GOP Leadership: Help Wanted — Non-Threatening Female."
On Monday evening, Cheney reportedly doubled-down on her criticism of Trump and "the notion the election is stolen," describing it as "a poison in the bloodstream of our democracy," during a private conference in Georgia for the American Enterprise Institute, according to CNN. She also criticized what she perceived as Trump's role in the Jan. 6 Capitol breach.
"We can't whitewash what happened on January 6 or perpetuate Trump's big lie," she said in an off-the-record interview with former House Speaker Paul Ryan, two people in the room told CNN. "It is a threat to democracy. What he did on January 6 is a line that cannot be crossed."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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