RAWLINS, Wyo. (AP) – The Wyoming Republican Party voted overwhelmingly on Saturday to disapprove U.S. Representative Liz Cheney for voting to impeach President Donald Trump for his role in the January 6 riot at the Capitol.
Only eight of the GOP’s central committee from 74 member states opposed censure in a vote that did not proceed to a formal count. The censure document accused Cheney of voting to impeach, even though the US House did not offer Trump a “formal hearing or a fair trial.”
‘We must honor President Trump. All President Trump did was call for a peaceful assembly and protest for fair and controlled elections, ”said Darin Smith, a Cheyenne lawyer who lost to Cheney in the 2016 Republican House primaries. The Republican Party must notify her. . “
Joey Correnti, GOP chairman in Carbon County, where the censure was held, added, “Does the vote of the people matter and if so, does it only matter at the polls?”
Cheney has said repeatedly that she voted her conscience to back the impeachment for the riot that followed a rally in which Trump encouraged supporters to get rid of lawmakers who are “no good, the Liz Cheneys of the world.”
Rather than leading a peaceful demonstration, Trump “convened this crowd, rallied the crowd and lit the flame of this attack,” Cheney said in a statement ahead of the January 13 vote on the impeachment.
In a statement after the GOP state vote, Cheney said she remained honored to represent Wyoming and will always fight on issues that matter most to the state.
“Chief among them is the defense of our constitution and the freedoms it guarantees. My vote for impeachment was forced by the oath I swore to the constitution, ”said Cheney.
Republican officials said they invited Cheney but she was not in attendance. At the front of the conference room was an empty chair labeled “Sales Representative Cheney.”
The censure was the latest backlash for Cheney as he joined nine Republican representatives and all Democrats in the US House to vote to impeach. Just three months after winning a third term at nearly 70%, Cheney will already face at least two Republican primary opponents by 2022.
They included Republican State Senator Anthony Bouchard, a Cheyenne gun rights activist, who attended the rally, but not among the speakers. Smith has also said he is considering whether to re-run for Congress.
On January 28, Republican U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz from Florida led a rally against Cheney in front of the Wyoming Capitol. About 1,000 people took part, many of whom carried signs calling for Cheney’s deposition, although several supported.
Cheney, however, will remain as the third member of the House GOP leadership, following a vote of 145-61 by House Republicans on Wednesday to retain her as chair of the conference committee.
Trump is on trial in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday on allegedly instigating insurgency when a crowd of supporters stormed into the Capitol and passed through the nearby rally led by Trump and close allies.
Disapproving opponents came mainly from Casper, Wyoming’s second-largest city, and the Jackson Hole area near Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.
“Let’s oppose this infusion of left-wing cancellation culture to try to censor and get rid of anyone we disagree with,” said Alexander Muromcew of the Teton County GOP.
The momentum for censure had been building for weeks when local Republicans in about a dozen of Wyoming’s 23 counties passed their own resolutions criticizing her vote for impeachment.
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