Trump supporters vs. Rep. Liz Cheney

[lpetrich]

Trump Supporters in the US House of Reps are trying to purge Rep. Liz Cheney R-WY-01 from the Republican House leadership.

Daughter of fmr Vice President Dick Cheney, she had a solidly pro-Trump voting record, including voting with her fellow Republicans not to impeach Trump the first time. But after the Jan. 6 insurrection, she became a strong critic of the former President, and she, along with 9 other House Republicans, joined the Democrats in impeaching Trump the second time. From Wikipedia, those 10:

Liz Cheney (WY‑AL), Anthony Gonzalez (OH‑16), Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA‑3), John Katko (NY‑24), Adam Kinzinger (IL‑16), Peter Meijer (MI‑3), Dan Newhouse (WA‑4), Tom Rice (SC‑7), Fred Upton (MI‑6), David Valadao (CA‑21),

She has remained a firm critic of Trump's continued claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, even though some Republican Congresspeople have gone back on their criticisms of Trump after than Jan. 6 insurrection. The Republican House leadership now wants to purge her, head of the Republican House Conference. That includes the #1 one, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA) and the #2 one, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (LA).

Cheney fight stokes cries of GOP double standard for women | TheHill

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) remains safe as the minority leader. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) survived a recent censure vote at home. And few on Capitol Hill are going after the likes of Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio) or John Katko (R-N.Y.).

Yet for Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), the No. 3 House Republican, the cost of denouncing former President Trump appears almost certain to be her expulsion from leadership, perhaps as early as next week. And that's sparking a backlash from some Republicans who see a vicious double standard in the GOP's hard-charging effort to demote the most powerful woman in the party's ranks.

“The women don't get the same slack that the men get,” former Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.), a Cheney ally, said this week by phone. "And I think a lot of the men are attacking her because they resent that she's got guts and they don't.

“They're on their knees for Trump and she's standing up for herself,” Comstock added. “And that's kind of an embarrassing thing if you're the guy on your knees.”

KMC and SS have a candidate for replacement: Elise Stefanik (NY).

 

[lpetrich]

Opinion | Liz Cheney op-ed: The GOP is at a turning point. History is watching us. - The Washington Post

In public statements again this week, former president Donald Trump has repeated his claims that the 2020 election was a fraud and was stolen. His message: I am still the rightful president, and President Biden is illegitimate. Trump repeats these words now with full knowledge that exactly this type of language provoked violence on Jan. 6. And, as the Justice Department and multiple federal judges have suggested, there is good reason to believe that Trump’s language can provoke violence again. Trump is seeking to unravel critical elements of our constitutional structure that make democracy work — confidence in the result of elections and the rule of law. No other American president has ever done this.

...
House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) left no doubt in his public remarks. On the floor of the House on Jan. 13, McCarthy said: “The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.” Now, McCarthy has changed his story.

After mentioning the importance of peaceful transfers of power,

While embracing or ignoring Trump’s statements might seem attractive to some for fundraising and political purposes, that approach will do profound long-term damage to our party and our country. Trump has never expressed remorse or regret for the attack of Jan. 6 and now suggests that our elections, and our legal and constitutional system, cannot be trusted to do the will of the people. This is immensely harmful, especially as we now compete on the world stage against Communist China and its claims that democracy is a failed system.

Her proposals:

First, support the ongoing Justice Department criminal investigations of the Jan. 6 attack. ...

Second, we must support a parallel bipartisan review by a commission with subpoena power to seek and find facts; it will describe for all Americans what happened. ...

Finally, we Republicans need to stand for genuinely conservative principles, and steer away from the dangerous and anti-democratic Trump cult of personality. ...

 

[ZiprHead]

Yeah, Republican's don't believe in cancel culture.

 

[laughing dog]

More evidence that the GOP is destroying itself.

 

[TV and credit cards]

More evidence that the GOP is destroying itself.

I wish.

The liberal news has been pulling at this thread for months now. So a few GOPers saw an opportunity to possibly bring the party back to it's traditions of simply oiling the gears of capitalism without all the hostilities the deplorables crave. Well, we're going to learn these last few months were but a bump on the road to ruin. Liz Cheney is going to get her head lopped off. Others will shut their mouths and fall in line. Their silence will be tolerated for now. But soon silence will be interpreted as being not "right" enough. Keeping your head down might get you primaried.

 

[Treedbear]

Trumpublicans have discovered that apparently Liz Cheney has a brain.

 

[ideologyhunter]

So...if a movement exiles every member who shows even a scintilla of honesty, integrity, or just plain common sense (and normal eyesight)...how far down can it go? Apparently to an endless abyss. I'd bring in The Emperor Who Had No Clothes for an extended riff, but who wants to picture a bloated nude guy with big orange man boobs?

 

[Angry Floof]

Trumpublicans have discovered that apparently Liz Cheney has a brain.

And something else they're not familiar with: courage.

 

[Swammerdami]

So...if a movement exiles every member who shows even a scintilla of honesty, integrity, or just plain common sense (and normal eyesight)...how far down can it go? Apparently to an endless abyss. I'd bring in The Emperor Who Had No Clothes for an extended run, but who wants to picture a bloated nude guy with big orange man boobs?

Truth continues to out-strange fiction.

KMC and SS have a candidate for replacement: Elise Stefanik (NY).

Does she have any qualifications? Or is she just the only woman they could come up with who isn't a QAnon nut?

 

[Rhea]

KMC and SS have a candidate for replacement: Elise Stefanik (NY).

Does she have any qualifications? Or is she just the only woman they could come up with who isn't a QAnon nut?

I think she is a QAnon nut.

 

[ZiprHead]

 

[crazyfingers]

KMC and SS have a candidate for replacement: Elise Stefanik (NY).

Does she have any qualifications? Or is she just the only woman they could come up with who isn't a QAnon nut?

I think she is a QAnon nut.

She has become one in a very short amount I've time. Apologies and I don't have the energy 2 excerpt from the story for those who don't get the Washington Post.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/07/decline-fall-elise-stefanik/

 

[lpetrich]

Titled link: Opinion | The decline and fall of Elise Stefanik - The Washington Post
Her history in office: Elise Stefanik - Ballotpedia

She was elected in 2014 at age 30, the youngest woman at the time. AOC beat her there in 2018.

From BP,

• 2015-Present: U.S. Representative from New York's 21st Congressional District
• 2006-2009: Served on President George W. Bush’s Domestic Policy Council Staff and in the Chief of Staff’s office
• 2006: Graduated with Honors from Harvard University with an A.B.
  • Received the Women’s Leadership Award
• Sales, marketing and management for Premium Plywood Products, Inc.
• Director of Vice Presidential Debate Prep to Paul Ryan
• Director of Communications for the Foreign Policy Initiative
• Policy Director for Governor Tim Pawlenty’s Presidential campaign

TP ran for President in 2011. PR was a Rep until 2018.

 

[lpetrich]

From the WaPo,

Whether out of conviction, belief that it was smart politics in a purplish district, or both, Stefanik at first distanced herself from Trump. During the 2016 campaign, she criticized his convention attack on a Gold Star military family, his “inappropriate, offensive comments” on the “Access Hollywood” tape, and his statements on NATO and Vladimir Putin.

Unlike some anti-Trump Republicans, she continued to be critical of Trump after he was nominated, and well into his term of office.

Even after Trump took office (and outpolled Stefanik in her own district), she nonetheless condemned his “rushed and overly broad” travel ban, questioned his plan to build a border wall (“I don’t think that’s realistic”), criticized his reported comments on “shithole countries” as “wrong and contrary to our American ideals,” and said it was a “mistake” to withdraw from the Paris climate accord. Co-chair of the Tuesday Group of moderate House Republicans, Stefanik voted against Trump’s signature 2017 tax cut because its limitation on deductions for state and local taxes would hurt her constituents. She described herself as “an outspoken supporter” of the investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, and lamented Trump’s “attacks on law enforcement and the Department of Justice.”

Then a big turnaround, where she became a hardcore Trump supporter, something Trump himself appreciated.

Then came the first impeachment, and Stefanik’s overnight makeover into a Trump acolyte, lambasting the “Russia hoax” and assailing Democrats for pursuing the issue. “A new Republican star is born,” Trump tweeted — and the campaign contributions began pouring in, $13.3 million in the 2020 election cycle, compared to $2.8 million two years earlier. A newly launched PAC brought in an additional $1 million. That’s a lot of positive feedback for a politician to ignore.

After the election, Stefanik doubled down. She signed a disgraceful friend-of-the-court brief supporting Texas’s bid to get the Supreme Court to overturn the election results. She voted along with 146 fellow House Republicans against certifying the election results for President Biden.

Longtime Stefanik observers suggest she understands that survival in this new GOP requires either making accommodations to the reality of Trumpism or consigning yourself to irrelevance in the party. “She’s too intelligent to be a convert in the dyed-in-the-wool sense,” said a person who has known Stefanik for years. “Most people who know Elise say they don’t recognize her.”

Let's compare ideology scores from Members of the United States Congress - GovTrack.us

• 116th (2019-20) ES #54 0.76, LC #115 0.68
• 115th (2017-18) ES #107 0.78, LC #185 0.68
• 114th (2015-16) ES #227 0.63
• 113th (2013-14) (neither)

Liz Cheney, Representative for Wyoming - GovTrack.us
United States Chamber of Commerce: 82%
The Club for Growth: 65%
League of Conservation Voters: 1%
Human Rights Campaign: 0%
Planned Parenthood Action Fund: 0%

Elise Stefanik, Representative for New York's 21st Congressional District - GovTrack.us
United States Chamber of Commerce: 100%
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws: C
Human Rights Campaign: 40%
League of Conservation Voters: 37%
The Club for Growth: 35%
Planned Parenthood Action Fund: 15%

 

[Angry Floof]

Then a big turnaround, where she became a hardcore Trump supporter, something Trump himself appreciated.

That was so bizarre to witness.

 

[untermensche]

Almost every Republican condemned Trump and said they did not support him when he was first running for president.

Then when he won many jumped on the bandwagon.

Then more and more.

Now the party that talks about freedom has been completely taken over by a delusion about the last election.

And any who oppose that delusion are expelled like a non-believer cast out by Christians.

Republicans clearly saw what the problem was in 2020.

Too much democracy.

 

[Shadowy Man]

Funny how the party that rails against so-called identity politics feels obligated to replace one woman with another. Shouldn’t Cheney’s position go to the most qualified representative regardless of sex or race?

 

[lpetrich]

Trump spokesman says defeating Cheney a top priority | TheHill

A spokesman for former President Trump says that defeating GOP Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) in her 2022 midterm primary election is a top goal for the former president amid escalating tensions between the two in recent days.

Trump spokesman Jason Miller told The Washington Post in an interview published Saturday that political advisers to Trump have started making calls to Wyoming officials and discussing potential primary challengers for Cheney’s seat.

The spokesman added that ousting Cheney was “one of the highest priorities as far as primary endorsements go.”

Liz Cheney plans lengthy fight over Trump's dominance of Republicans. - The Washington Post

Rep. Liz Cheney had been arguing for months that Republicans had to face the truth about former president Donald Trump — that he had lied about the 2020 election result and bore responsibility for the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol — when the Wyoming Republican sat down at a party retreat in April to listen to a polling briefing.

The refusal to accept reality, she realized, went much deeper.

Like refusing to accept some very negative results from a recent poll of Trump's favorability.

Even if she is cast out of power in the House, she has made clear that she will not stop, promising to take her argument against Trump to the campaign trail in Wyoming, where he garnered 70 percent of the vote in 2020. She has told others that blocking Trump from leading the party is a fight she sees as just beginning, no matter how Wednesday’s vote goes.

I don't know how much of a political base she has, how many fellow Bushies there are who might be willing to support her.

 

[Treedbear]

Watchin' the 1984 release of the movie "1984". Important lesson for Liz Cheney. All she needs to say is:

"I ask only ... for you to accept ... my love for our leader."

Instead of:

"We must love America so much ... that we never yield in her defense. That ... is our duty."

Patrick Henry would be smiling.

They'd shoot her anyway, but she needs to get with the program: "Ignorance is strength."

Cue the simpering, whining, and sniveling.

 

[ideologyhunter]

Mona Charen was on MSNBC tonight on Chris Hayes's show. She was chilling and succinct. Since it is now Republican dogma that you must, MUST uphold the lie that Trump won but the election was stolen -- what happens in 2025, if the Republicans control the House, and Congress sits in joint session to certify the electoral college results? If a Democrat has won, are the Republicans now honor-bound as Republican Liars, to lie and contest the result? Because that's exactly what they're doing now.