While Liz Cheney is fighting to keep her number 3 position following her vote to impeach Donald J. Trump, House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday offered a full-throated defense of the Wyoming lawmaker. But, the claws are out for Cheney, who gave a strong speech before voting in favor of impeaching Trump for inciting the deadly insurrection.
On Wednesday, Cheney defended her support for impeachment as a vote of her conscience during a contentious closed-door GOP conference meeting Wednesday, according to what a person in the room told CNN.
“I won’t apologize for the vote,” Cheney told the House Republican conference, according to the news outlet.
Cheney was one of ten House Republicans to cross party lines and vote to impeach former President Donald Trump for inciting the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6th that left five people dead, including a police officer.
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“Cheney delivered an eight-minute speech near the beginning of the Wednesday meeting, two people in the room said, offering what was described as a calm yet firm defense of the Constitution,” CNN reports. “She did not apologize during her remarks.”
“Cheney also told members that she wanted a vote to be called on her leadership status, which was interpreted by some in the room as an act of confidence in her standing with a broader cross-section of Republicans, the majority of which did not air their grievances toward her,” the report adds.
Cheney wasn’t fooling around when she released a statement explaining her vote to impeach.
“On January 6, 2021, a violent mob attacked the United States Capitol to obstruct the process of our democracy and stop the counting of presidential electoral votes,” she said. “This insurrection caused injury, death and destruction in the most sacred space in our Republic.”
“Much more will become clear in coming days and weeks, but what we know now is enough,” she continued. “The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the President. The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not. There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”
“I will vote to impeach the President,” she added at the time.
She’s not wrong. And Cheney doesn’t need anyone’s permission to vote according to her conscience, but she’s under pressure from her colleagues anyway.
Featured image via screen capture
