RAWLINS, Wyo. (AP) – The Wyoming Republican Party voted overwhelmingly Saturday to censor U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney for voting to charge President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Only eight of the 74 members of the Central Committee of the Republican Party opposed censorship in a vote that did not proceed to a formal count. The censure document accused Cheney of voting to challenge even though the U.S. House offered Trump no “formal hearing or legal process.”
“We must honor President Trump. All President Trump did was convene a peaceful assembly and protest a fair and audited election, “said Darin Smith, a Cheyenne lawyer who lost to Cheney in the U.S. Republican House primaries in 2016. ” The Republican Party must communicate it. “
Joey Correnti, president of the GOP in Carbon County, where the censure vote was held, was added: “Does people’s voice matter and, if so, does it only matter at the polls?”
Cheney has repeatedly said he voted for his conscience to support the removal of the riot, which followed a rally where Trump encouraged supporters to get rid of lawmakers who “are not at all good, the Liz Cheneys of the world “.
Far from leading a peaceful demonstration, Trump “convened this crowd, gathered the crowd and ignited the flame of this attack,” Cheney said in a statement ahead of the Jan. 13 impeachment vote.
In a statement after the state Republican Party vote, Cheney said he remained honored to represent Wyoming and will always fight for the issues that most interest him in the state.
“Among them is the defense of our Constitution and the freedoms it guarantees. My vote on appeal was forced by the oath I took on the Constitution, ”Cheney said.
Republican officials said they invited Cheney, but did not attend. An empty chair labeled “Representative Cheney” sitting in front of the meeting room.
The censure vote was the last shock for Cheney to join nine Republican representatives and all Democrats in the U.S. House in the vote to accuse. Just three months after winning a third term with nearly 70%, Cheney is already facing at least two Republican primary opponents in 2022.
They include Republican state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, a Cheyenne gun rights activist who was at the meeting but not among those who spoke. Smith has also said he is deliberating whether to run again in Congress.
On January 28, U.S. Republican Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida led a rally against Cheney in front of the Wyoming Capitol. About 1,000 people took part, many of them carrying placards calling for Cheney’s removal, although several backed him.
Cheney will remain the third member of the House GOP leadership, however, after a 145-61 vote by House Republicans on Wednesday to keep her as chair of the conference committee.
Trump faces trial on Tuesday in the U.S. Senate for allegedly inciting insurrection when a crowd of sympathizers stormed the Capitol after the upcoming rally led by Trump and close allies.
Opponents of censorship came primarily from Casper, Wyoming’s second largest city, and the Jackson Hole area near Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.
“We resist this infusion of left-wing cancellation culture to try to censor and get rid of anyone we disagree with,” Alexander Muromcew told TOP County County.
The momentum for censorship had been growing for weeks, as local Republicans in a dozen of Wyoming’s 23 counties passed their own resolutions criticizing their removal vote.
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