U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), may truly believe that her vote to impeach President Trump a second time was a “vote of conscience,” but in the world of politics there are sometimes severe consequences for those types of votes. That reality is coming home to roost for Cheney in her home state of Wyoming.
The Wyoming Republican and number three in the US House as the chair of the House Republican Conference, was one of ten House Republicans who voted to impeach President Trump in the aftermath of the January 6th, chaos on Capitol Hill.
But it was less her vote that has put her in in a very tenuous position in her home District, and more the words she used in the declaration of her vote; words that Democrats – including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), cited repeatedly as they attempted to bully other GOP lawmakers into breaking with the President.
Liz Cheney censured in Wyoming for vote to impeach Trump: ‘Did not represent our voice’ https://t.co/DwryjxnkOK via @washtimes
— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) January 19, 2021
“The president of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” Cheney said in attempting to explain her vote. “Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the president.”
These words didn’t ring well with the people she was elected to represent, a representative duty she appears to have abandoned in pursuit of her own will in her “vote of conscience.”
“I’ve gotten a lot of phone calls, more than you could count. I have not gotten one in support of what Liz Cheney did,” Martin Kimmet, the chairman of the Republican Party in Park County, said. “What she did was wrong. Period.”
Kimmet was critical of Cheney’s chances in the upcoming 2022 Mid-Term elections, suggesting that the nosedive in her approval among constituents might be enough to see her ousted from Congress. “She couldn’t win a primary today for dog catcher,” Mr. Kimmet said.
The harsh pushback against Cheney’s vote by her constituents in Wyoming reflects the strong support for the President among Republican voters. One mainstream media poll, released last Thursday, showed just 8 percent of Republican voters supported impeachment.
Another poll that focused on Cheney’s accusation that the President executed a “betrayal” of his oath of office, found that only 31 percent of those surveyed agreed with her and 62 percent disagreed, with 52 percent “strongly” disagreeing.
.@RepRosendale : Liz Cheney's impeachment vote shows its time for new GOP leadership in Congresshttps://t.co/8HSwr5adK9
— Sara A. Carter (@SaraCarterDC) January 19, 2021
While Pelosi heaped praise on Cheney, saying, “Good for her for honoring her oath of office…Would that more Republicans would honor their oaths of office,” many in her caucus are seeking to remove her from her position.
US Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Matt Rosendale (R-MT), are actively circulating a petition to remove her as chair to the House Republican Conference and a number of those who have not abandoned the President are gunning for her ouster.
“It is extremely difficult for someone to be in a position of speaking for the conference with those thoughts,” said US Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY).
Cheney has stated she won’t quit. “I’m not going anywhere. This is a vote of conscience. It’s one where there are different views in our conference,” she told reporters at the Capitol.