GOP votes to dump Cheney from leadership

In an extraordinary bow to former President Trump, House Republicans voted Wednesday to purge GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney from her leadership post, punishing the conservative Wyoming Republican for daring to refute Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

The decision was made by voice vote, meaning there will be no tally of the lawmakers who voted to dump Cheney, or of those who wanted her to stay on. Sources inside the closed-door vote said it was an overwhelming vote against Cheney.

That represents a remarkable shift from a similar challenge to her leadership status in February, when she won handily. And it marked the first time in recent memory that a congressional GOP leader was toppled by rank-and-file Republicans in the middle of their term through a formal vote.

Trump was not on Wednesday’s ballot, but he was the elephant in the room as Cheney’s colleagues lined up ahead of the vote to condemn her for what has become an unpardonable sin in today’s Republican Party: Calling out the former president for his repeated falsehoods about his election defeat.

“The problem is you can't have a Republican conference chair who continually recites Democrat talking points,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), former head of the conservative Freedom Caucus and a close Trump ally, said Tuesday night. “You can't have a Republican conference chair who takes positions that 90 percent of the party oppose."

Less than 30 minutes before the GOP gathering, Trump weighed in with another broadside against Cheney, accusing her of promoting unnecessary wars in a message that paved the way for Republicans to oust her shortly afterwards.

“The Republicans in the House of Representatives have a great opportunity today to rid themselves of a poor leader, a major Democrat talking point, a warmonger, and a person with absolutely no personality or heart,” Trump said in a brief statement.