Forty conservative leaders call for the immediate expulsion of the two “Never Trump” representatives who serve on Speaker Pelosi’s Jan. 6 select committee.
QUICK FACTS:
- In a letter to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA), a group of forty Republican heavyweights make their case for stripping Reps. Cheney (WY) and Kinzinger (IL) of “the privileges granted to members of the House Republican Conference.”
- The letter focuses on Cheney and Kinzinger’s “egregious actions as part of the House of Representative’s January 6th Select Committee.”
- “The actions of Reps. Cheney and Kinzinger on behalf of House Democrats have given supposedly bipartisan justification to an overtly partisan political persecution that brings disrespect to our country’s rule of law, legal harassment to private citizens who have done nothing wrong, and which demeans the standing of the House.”
GOP HEAVYWEIGHTS TARGET CHENEY, KINZINGER:
- First reported by One America News, the letter’s signatories are a veritable “who’s who” of GOP power-brokers.
- Though McCarthy cannot remove Cheney and Kinzinger from the House, he can deny them membership in the GOP conference. “They should no longer be given access to the benefits of a conference they actively seek to undermine,” the group says in their letter.
- The letter concludes with “[w]e further inform you that conservative leaders are launching a nationwide movement to add citizens’ voices to this effort.”
BACKGROUND:
- Reps. Cheney and Kinzinger are the faces of the “Never Trump” Republicans and have suffered for it.
- The Wyoming GOP recently voted to stop recognizing Cheney—who is the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney—as a Republican.
- Kinzinger does not intend to run for re-election in 2022. After the 2020 census, Illinois lost a seat in the House, and the state’s Democratic leadership redrew their congressional map such that Kinzinger’s district became a blue one.
- As for the Jan. 6 select committee, questions about its legitimacy and methods beleaguer it. Most recently, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) got caught doctoring evidence: text messages between Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).
