NB: The litmus test for Cheney is not just that she is opposed to
Trumpism (the Republiklan equivalent of The Leader for the NSDAP) but
whether or not she opposes voter suppression, the mechanism whereby the
Republiklan Party will stay in power despite not having a majority of
the pre-voter-suppression eligible voters (some of whom do not vote).
Post-reconstruction, the Jim Crow states stripped African-Americans of
the right to vote, and thus installed and maintained white supremacists
as outright segregationists (apartheid). De facto apartheid heavily
still exists in the USA, but wait until the Republiklans and Repubilikan
SCOTUS lay down their law -- "you ain't see nothing yet". Rep. Cheney
does not below to the party of Abraham Lincoln or Thaddeus Stevens, but
to the party of Strom Thurmond and Tucker Carlson.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/cheney-stripped-of-leadership-position-vows-to-keep-trump-from-returning-to-presidency-140110196.html?.tsrc=fp_deeplink
Cheney, stripped of leadership position, vows to keep Trump from
returning to presidency
Jon Ward
Chief National Correspondent
Wed, May 12, 2021, 7:01 AM
WASHINGTON — House Republicans stripped Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., of a
leadership position Wednesday, rejecting her insistence that the GOP
tell the truth about the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Cheney was defiant after the vote. She told reporters that she had
spoken to her Republican colleagues and told them she was “absolutely
committed … that we must go forward based on truth.”
“We cannot both embrace the ‘big lie’ and embrace the Constitution,” she
said, referring to former President Donald Trump’s campaign of
falsehoods about last year’s election.
Cheney said the vote signaled an existential fight for the soul of the
GOP and the preservation of democracy. “I will do everything I can to
ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval
Office,” she said. “We have seen the danger that he continues to provoke
with his language. We have seen his lack of commitment and dedication to
the Constitution.”
The House GOP’s 212 members met behind closed doors and conducted a
voice vote, despite calls by Cheney backers such as Rep. Adam Kinzinger,
R-Ill., that they make the vote public.
US Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming, speaks to the media
at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on May 12, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/AFP
via Getty Images)
Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming at the Capitol on Wednesday. (Mandel Ngan/AFP
via Getty Images)
Journalist Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News reported that before the vote,
Cheney told her colleagues that “if you want leaders who will enable and
spread his destructive lies, I’m not your person, you have plenty of
others to choose from. That will be their legacy.”
Cheney was removed from the No. 3 spot in the House GOP, which is known
as the House Republican Conference Chair. Republicans are expected to
replace her with Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York.
The vote marks a significant moment for the Republican Party.
Some GOP politicians claimed anonymously that it was Cheney who chose to
keep talking about Jan. 6 unnecessarily, pointing to the fact that she
easily won a vote on her leadership on Feb. 3, which was sparked by her
vote to impeach Trump for inciting the insurrection. Nine other House
Republicans voted to impeach Trump as well.
The Washington Examiner’s Byron York argued that, as a nameless House
Republican told him, Cheney wouldn’t stop talking about Jan. 6 and that
she had “changed.”
But what changed since Feb. 3 was that Trump began to talk more publicly
in general, and specifically he began to ramp up the same lies about the
2020 election that resulted in death, destruction and an assault on
democracy on Jan. 6.
Trump supporters participate in a rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.
(John Minchillo/AP)
Trump supporters at a rally in Washington on Jan. 6. (John Minchillo/AP)
On Feb. 28, Trump gave his first public speech since leaving office at
the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). He not only
continued to lie about the election result, but also added another
conspiracy on top of it, claiming without evidence that the U.S. legal
system is broken and should have handed him the victory.
“This election was rigged, and the Supreme Court and other courts didn’t
want to do anything about it,” Trump said. Over 60 lawsuits filed on
Trump’s behalf were rejected by courts all over the country.
Trump riled up the crowd, prompting them to chant, “You won, you won!”
Four days prior to CPAC, Cheney had caused House Minority Leader Kevin
McCarthy embarrassment when reporters asked him if Trump should be
speaking at the conference.
“Yes he should,” said McCarthy, who initially blamed Trump for the
violent assault on the Capitol but later backtracked. McCarthy visited
with Trump just three weeks after the insurrection to seek his support.
Reporters prodded Cheney to answer the same question as McCarthy. She
stepped to the microphone, and said, “That’s up to CPAC. I’ve been clear
on my views about President Trump and the extent to which following Jan.
6, I don’t believe that he should be playing a role in the future of the
party or the country.”
McCarthy’s face fell. He made a joke and ended the press conference.
Up until that point, Trump’s public statements had been sparse, issued
by email every few days. They ramped up a bit in March, and on March 20,
Trump sent out a statement saying that “we had an Illegitimate Election.”
President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action
Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Fla. on Feb. 28, 2021.(John Raoux/AP)
Former President Donald Trump at the Conservative Political Action
Conference in Orlando on Feb. 28.(John Raoux/AP)
“The Supreme Court and other Courts were afraid to rule, they were
‘gutless,’ and will go down in history as such,” Trump wrote.
On April 2, Trump issued another similar statement that continued to
promote his lie. “There was massive fraud in the 2020 Presidential
Election, and many very angry people understand that,” he wrote.
Trump’s Easter Sunday statement two days later: “Happy Easter to ALL,
including the Radical Left CRAZIES who rigged our Presidential Election,
and want to destroy our Country!”
On April 5, Trump issued a lengthy statement in which he detailed
several false and unsupported claims of various types of election fraud,
again echoing what had become known as the “big lie.”
On April 14, Trump attacked Cheney as “crazy” and said he would endorse
a primary challenger to try to unseat her.
On April 27, he called Cheney a “warmongering fool” and said “there is
no way she can win” her next election. Cheney had contradicted
McCarthy’s statement that Trump is the leader of the GOP. “Our elected
leaders are the ones who are in charge of the Republican Party,” Cheney
said.
On May 3, Trump tried to take the term the “big lie” and turn it back on
those who called out his own falsehoods. “The Fraudulent Presidential
Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE!” he
said in another statement. He took another shot at Cheney that day as well.
US Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming, speaks to the media
at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on May 12, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/AFP
via Getty Images)
Cheney after the vote, which was conducted behind closed doors, despite
calls by Cheney backers that they make the vote public. (Mandel Ngan/AFP
via Getty Images)
Later that day, Cheney responded on Twitter.
“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,” Cheney wrote.
Two days later, McCarthy had turned on Cheney and had begun working to
oust her.
That same day, Trump said that Cheney “continues to unknowingly and
foolishly say that there was no Election Fraud in the 2020 Presidential
Election.”
And on Wednesday morning, about 30 minutes before the House GOP voted
against Cheney, Trump issued a statement calling her “a poor leader, a
major Democrat talking point, a warmonger, and a person with absolutely
no personality or heart.”
After the vote, Trump once again weighed in. “Liz Cheney is a bitter,
horrible human being,” he wrote. “I watched her yesterday and realized
how bad she is for the Republican Party. She has no personality or
anything good having to do with politics or our Country.”
Cheney, however, said that “the nation needs a strong Republican Party …
a party that is based upon fundamental principles of conservatism” and
that she plans “to lead the fight” to take the GOP in that direction.