Wyoming GOP Censures Liz Cheney For Voting To Impeach Trump
The Wyoming Republican Party voted on Saturday to censure Rep. Liz Cheney and asked her to resign for her vote last month to impeach then-President Donald Trump after the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Cheney, the third-ranking member of House Republican leadership, was one of just 10 members of her party to support impeaching Trump for a second time.
She and other party leaders have come under fire from Trump loyalists for siding with Democrats in the impeachment.
Cheney's censure by the Cowboy State's GOP is largely symbolic, and it comes after House Republicans decided this week to let her hold onto her leadership role in Congress.
The Wyoming Republican Party's central committee censured Cheney with just eight of its 74 members opposing the resolution.
The committee also called on her to "immediately resign," according to a copy published by Forbes.
The House vote to impeach Trump, the letter reportedly reads, was done "with no formal hearings held, no quantifiable evidence presented, no witnesses sworn to give testimony, and no right to cross examine the accusers provided."
It also said Cheney "violated the trust of her voters, failed to faithfully represent a very large majority of motivated Wyoming voters, and neglected her duty to represent the party" and the will of the state's voters.
The resolution also falsely states, according to the letter copy, that there was "ample" video evidence that the riot at the Capitol was "instigated by Antifa and BLM radicals." Evidence and arrests so far, however, reveal that it was largely far-right groups and pro-Trump extremists who planned and carried out the Capitol attack.
NPR's calls to the Wyoming Republican Party were not answered.
Cheney said in a statement after the censure vote that she remains honored to represent Wyoming and will always fight for issues that matter most to the state.
But the pressure on her is unlikely to dissipate after the censure. Anthony Bouchard, a state senator planning to run against Cheney in 2022, tweeted a photo of an empty chair with her name on it from Saturday's meeting.
"Today's vote to censure illustrates that Liz Cheney is hopelessly out of touch with Wyoming, Trump's best state TWICE," he said.
Cheney was invited to address the meeting but didn't attend.
In late January, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz ignored calls by the Republican leadership to try to cool tensions within the party and flew to Wyoming to campaign against Cheney.
Cheney is not the only GOP member to face censure for acting in opposition to Trump.
South Carolina's GOP formally censured Rep. Tom Rice over his support for impeachment. And Arizona Republicans rebuked Gov. Doug Ducey, former Sen. Jeff Flake and Cindy McCain — widow of the late longtime Sen. John McCain — for taking positions against Trump.
Wyoming Public Media's Bob Beck contributed to this report. [Copyright 2021 NPR]
