Republican lawmakers are calling for Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) to resign her position as the House Republican Conference chair after backing a push to impeach President Trump.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), who chairs the House Freedom Caucus, called on Cheney to resign in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday.
“I don’t think she should be the chair of the Republican conference anymore,” Biggs told Fox News host Shannon Bream. “The reality is she’s not representing the conference; she’s not representing the Republican ideals.”
Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) echoed Biggs’ call in a statement released on social media Tuesday evening.
“When Representative Cheney came out for impeachment today, she failed to consult with the Conference, failed to abide by the spirit of the rules of the Republican Conference, and ignored the preferences of Republican voters,” Rosendale said. “She is weakening our conference at a key moment for personal political gain and is unfit to lead. She must step down as Conference Chair.”
Please see my statement on Republican Conference leadership pic.twitter.com/0jZn6l5NcX
— Matt Rosendale (@RepRosendale) January 13, 2021
Cheney announced on Tuesday that she would support a Democrat-led impeachment effort against Trump in the House. She is the first Republican in House leadership to support ousting Trump from office.
“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. This insurrection caused injury, death and destruction in the most sacred space in our Republic,” Cheney said in a statement.
“Much more will become clear in coming days and weeks, but what we know now is enough. 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,” she continued. “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 concluded.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), a moderate, has criticized the ongoing impeachment push and asserted that any article that makes it to the Senate for trial will not have enough support to remove Trump from office. A trial in the Senate is unlikely to happen anyway as the chamber is not due back in session until a day before President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in.
“I think, my arithmetic, that means we have 19 Republicans. I don’t see that. And I think the House should know that also. We have been trying to send that message over. They know the votes aren’t there. You would think that they would do that,” Manchin said on Monday.
“I think this is so ill-advised for Joe Biden to be coming in, trying to heal the country, trying to be the president of all the people, when we’re going to be so divided and fighting again. Let the judicial system do its job,” he added. “And then, we’re a country of the rule of law. That’s the bedrock of who we are. Let that take its place. Let the investigations go on. Let the evidence come forth, and then we will go forward from there. There’s no rush to do this impeachment now. We can do it later if they think it’s necessary.”
