RNC Censures Cheney, Kinzinger for Working With Jan. 6 Panel

The Republican National Committee (RNC) voted Friday to formally censure Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) for their participation in the House committee investigating the January 6th Capitol riot. 

In its resolution, the RNC said Cheney and Kinzinger were “participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.” RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel later specified that this line referred to people who “had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol.” The resolution also stressed that Cheney and Kinzinger were interfering with the RNC’s “primary goal” of “winning back the majority in Congress.” Not all Republican politicians agreed with the censure; opponents included Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah). Adding to Republicans’ Jan. 6 focus on Friday, former Vice President Mike Pence said former President Trump was “wrong” about his ability to overturn the election results on Jan. 6, adding that he “had no right to overturn the election” and that it was “un-American” to suggest that “any one person could choose the American president.”

Coverage was somewhat more prominent in left-rated outlets than right-rated outlets. Several left-rated outlets took the RNC’s “legitimate political discourse” line as directly referring to “the attack on the Capitol and events that led to it” with headlines like the Daily Beast’s (Left) “GOP Declares Deadly Jan. 6 Attack ‘Legitimate Political Discourse.’”