House Republicans voted Wednesday by a wide margin to allow Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney to remain chair of the GOP conference after a few-hour meeting in which members cast their grievances. for his vote to accuse former President Trump last month. Only 61 Republicans voted to remove Cheney from office, while 145 voted for him to remain in a secret ballot.
The vote came after Cheney told his Republican colleagues he would not apologize for his decision, according to a source familiar with the meeting. He later praised the result as a “fantastic vote.”
“We will not be in a situation where people can choose any member of the leadership,” he said after the meeting. “It was a very resounding recognition that we need to move forward together and then we need to move forward in a way that helps us overcome the really dangerous and negative democratic policies.”
He entered the meeting Wednesday with the support of both House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Republican Whip Steve Scalise, the two main House Republican Party leaders.
“People may have differences of opinion. That’s what we’re discussing. Liz has a right to vote her conscience,” McCarthy told reporters during a break at the meeting.
But both leaders allowed and even encouraged members to question Cheney’s decision that led to the Republican Party meeting. In an interview last month, McCarthy said she had “concerns” that she would not reveal her vote or her plan to speak out against the former president prematurely.
After the vote, the two men said their conference was in a good place.
“We just got a resounding shot in the arm that got a team,” McCarthy said. Scalise said the conference “came out much stronger” because everyone was able to cast their grievances.
Republican Reps Matt Rosendale of Montana and Andy Biggs of Arizona, who were among the most frustrated members with Cheney, led efforts to remove her from her leadership position. The vote to withdraw it eventually fell far short of the more than 115 members that anti-Cheney forces claimed would vote against it.
The main annoyance for Republicans who supported the ouster effort was Cheney’s decision to announce his position the day before the vote, a source familiar with CBS News’s efforts to remove Cheney from his vote told leadership position. Throughout the debate the next day, House Democrats quoted his words.
Cheney was the most prominent and highest-ranking of the 10 House Republicans who voted to oust the former president. After making the announcement, Rosendale asked him to step down, saying he “could not consult with the Conference, did not respect the spirit of the rules of the Republican Conference, and ignored the preferences of Republican voters.”
Voting caused him problems at home as well. He has won three major challenges for his seat in the House, including Wyoming State Senator Anthony Bouchard, who said his removal vote “demonstrates how disconnected he is from Wyoming.” Her colleague, Florida Republican Matt Gaetz, traveled to her home state to rally against her, calling her a “Beltway bureaucrat turned into a fake cowgirl” and casting her vote of dismissal and support. to U.S. military participation abroad.
Alan He, Zak Hudak and Jack Turman contributed to this story.