- A heated debate broke out among House Republicans on Tuesday, prompting several prominent members of the Republican Party to publicly attack Republican Party Conference President Liz Cheney.
- Politician reported that several conservative House Republicans confronted Cheney in a private meeting for, in his opinion, not being loyal enough to President Trump.
- The fight spread to social media when Rep. Matt Gatez asked Cheney to step down or out of the House of Representatives leadership, a critique amplified by Senator Rand Paul and Donald Trump Jr.
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On Tuesday, an in-party fight broke out between House Republicans, which led to at least two prominent members of Congress and President Donald Trump’s eldest son supporting calls for Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming to resign. to the leadership of the Chamber.
Cheney, who was first elected to the Wyoming House of Representatives general district in 2016, is the Speaker of the House of Representatives Republican Party Conference and the third-highest ranking House Republican after the leader of the minority Kevin McCarthy and minor scourge Steve Scalise. Cheney is also just one of 11 Republican representatives from the US House of Representatives running for reelection in 2020.
Melanie Zanona of Politico reported that, at the first in-person Republican caucus meeting in months, several of the more conservative members of the house unloaded Cheney on complaints ranging from his endorsement to a primary challenger to Rep. Thomas Massie from Kentucky until her public support for Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, a member of the Freedom Caucus, reportedly complained of all the times his message had conflicted with Trump, who is currently receiving disappointing ratings from the American people for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Politico said Rep. Chip Roy of Texas regretted that his Democratic opponent Wendy Davis had retweeted some of Cheney’s tweets praising Fauci, whom many Republicans have criticized for their forceful warnings about the danger of reopening the economies of some states during the COVID-19 crisis.
Cheney reportedly stood firm at the meeting, backing up his positive comments about Fauci and telling members that they should really address their issues with Trump himself rather than blaming it on her.
After the meeting, Cheney told CNN’s Manu Raju that the discussion was a “healthy exchange of views” and that she and Massie are now “in a good place.”
But then the fight went public on social media when Gaetz, Donald Trump Jr., and Senator Rand Paul publicly criticized Cheney for being insufficiently loyal to Trump, overly responsible for the U.S. military presence abroad, or both, with Gatez explicitly asking for it. to “resign or be removed” from the position of President of the Republican Party Conference of the House of Representatives.
—Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 21, 2020
—Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 21, 2020
The daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, Cheney is known for having more aggressive views on US foreign policy and military strategy.
But, as Zanona pointed out, Cheney still votes with Trump 97% of the time, according to the FiveThirtyEight’s Trump Score, he has wide support within the party and has not been publicly criticized by Trump himself.
