House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday implored Republicans to stop publicly attacking each other amid GOP infighting over the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riots, which has created simmering tensions inside the conference.

During a private conference call, McCarthy told members that they should be spending more time countering the Biden agenda than chastising each other, adding he would no longer have any tolerance for such behavior, according to multiple sources on the call. McCarthy also reminded House Republicans that they will have an opportunity to air their grievances during a closed-door meeting in the Capitol next week, where a conservative-led push to oust Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) over her vote to impeach President Donald Trump is expected to come to a head.

“If you’re not focused on what you’re doing and what the Democrats are doing wrong, and you’re focused on talking about one another, I’m not putting up with that anymore,” McCarthy said on the call, according to a source familiar with the conversation. “But, if you continue to do that, there won’t be a place for you. I want to be very clear to each and every one of you. … It is not a way we’re going to win the majority.”

“You elected me your leader, you can pull me out,” he added. “But I’ll tell you one thing that’s going to happen. I’m not going to sit back and watch us lose. I’m not going to sit back and watch us make self-inflicted wounds either.”

McCarthy issued a similar plea two weeks ago, warning Republicans that calling out a member by name to the press could put their colleagues in danger. There has been an uptick in threats against Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump; one lawmaker who voted to remove Trump from office, freshman Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.), even said he’s had to invest in body armor.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) has also quarreled with controversial freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Twitter, posting that Greene’s rhetoric could incite further insurrections.

Much of the fighting, however, has focused on Cheney, the No. 3 House GOP member. Republicans have warned that efforts to oust Cheney, the highest ranking woman in GOP leadership, could hurt the party’s efforts to win back the House in 2022.

Some House Republicans have ignored McCarthy’s advice and the intraparty warfare has continued publicly, to the frustration of the California Republican. It’s unclear, however, how exactly he plans to hold members accountable.

The Cheney question has become almost unavoidable in the press, with McCarthy himself being asked about her in a Sunday interview with Greta Van Susteren. And while McCarthy said he wants Cheney to keep her leadership job, he, too, offered up some public criticism of her during the interview: McCarthy said he has “concerns” with Cheney’s impeachment vote and called her out for not giving him a heads up on her position.

Meanwhile, conservative firebrand Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who has been one of the most vocal Cheney critics, will even campaign against Cheney in Wyoming this week.

“My only conversation with Kevin McCarthy, was after a TV hit, he asked me not to name members by name because we've all seen a substantial increase of death threats,” Gaetz told reporters this week. “I've subsided referencing people by name for a day or two. As Liz became more problematic with her divergence with the conference, it became untenable not to identify her as against the America First Vision.”

During Wednesday's call with House Republicans, which was hosted by the House GOP's campaign, multiple members pledged money to the NRCC. And McCarthy, who is fundraising in Florida this week, will meet with Trump on Thursday, sources confirmed. Those plans were first reported by Punchbowl News.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday called on the vice president to immediately begin the process of ousting President Donald Trump, an extraordinary statement that gives weight to a Democratic effort to remove him from office.

“This is urgent, this is an emergency of the highest magnitude,” Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol, one day after Trump’s supporters stormed the complex and spurred dozens of Democrats to call for Trump’s removal. “Yesterday the president of the United States incited an armed insurrection against America.”

Pelosi said if Vice President Mike Pence did not take action to invoke the 25th Amendment, House Democrats could quickly act to impeach Trump, and did not rule out bringing the House back into session next week, when both chambers are slated to be in recess.

Democrats could swiftly create a commission to begin the process of removing Trump through the 25th Amendment, or take the unprecedented step of impeaching a sitting president for the second time in one term.

“While there’s only 13 days left, any day can be a horror show for America,” Pelosi said.

But she said the “best route” would be for Pence to initiate the action himself, which would involve the vice president and a majority of either the Cabinet, or another body “established by law” — which could include Congress.

Pelosi told reporters she hoped to hear from Pence Thursday on whether he was willing to act and if not, she was prepared to move quickly in the House. Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tried to reach Pence by phone earlier Thursday but weren't able to, Schumer said in a separate press conference in New York. Schumer, too, called on Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and said Congress should move to impeach if that did not happen.

“What happened at the U.S. Capitol yesterday was an insurrection against the United States, incited by the president. This president should not hold office one day longer,” Schumer said in a statement.

“The quickest and most effective way,” he said, would be to invoke the 25th Amendment. “If the Vice President and the Cabinet refuse to stand up, Congress should reconvene to impeach the president,” Schumer said.

The comments to call for Trump’s immediate removal with less than two weeks remaining on his term are remarkable for Pelosi — second in line to the presidency — who had long resisted impeachment before the House went ahead with the proceedings last fall.

The once-unthinkable push for a second impeachment vote had been steadily gaining ground across the House Democratic Caucus, with members incensed at Trump’s role in the deadly chaos on Wednesday that gripped Capitol Hill — and put the lives of themselves and their staff at danger, according to multiple lawmakers and aides.

Shortly before Pelosi’s press conference, House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries also endorsed the move, in what many saw as a sign that the House could, indeed, take some kind of action next week.

"Donald Trump should be impeached, convicted and removed from office immediately," Jeffries tweeted.

Across the Capitol, there has also been a very real discussion of Congress pressuring Pence and Trump’s Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment, which would install Pence as president for the final two weeks of Trump’s term.

At least one Republican lawmaker has endorsed that option, though many Democrats say it doesn’t go far enough as Pence would still need to agree.

“It’s time to invoke the 25th Amendment and to end this nightmare,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois said Thursday, becoming the first Republican to call for invoking it. “The president is unfit and the president is unwell.”

Privately, multiple Democratic members and aides insist that there is a larger group of Republicans beyond Kinzinger that support the move, and are in discussions about how to proceed.

The timeframe for any floor action is impossibly tight: There are just 13 days until President-elect Joe Biden takes the oath, and both chambers are slated to be on recess next week.

"A number of us are planning a full court press to demand we reconvene immediately,” one Democratic member said on the condition of anonymity to discuss private discussions. “A growing number of Republicans have privately indicated support for the removal of the president."

Schumer became the highest-ranking Democrat on Thursday to endorse using the 25th Amendment to remove Trump, along with Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state, the No. 3 Senate Democrat. So far, a single House Republican — Kinzinger, who has been sounding the alarm about Trump’s dangerous and false rhetoric for weeks — has voiced support.

While Senate Republicans are escalating their condemnation of the president, no one so far is calling for Trump to be removed from office. When asked about the 25th Amendment late Wednesday evening, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who unlike Kinzinger voted to impeach Trump last year, said: "I think we’ve got to hold our breath for the next 20 days."

But some GOP officials have begun discussing deploying the drastic option, according to multiple reports, while some Trump administration officials have already resigned in protest.

The responsibility for invoking the 25th Amendment falls on the vice president and Cabinet, but some lawmakers believe action in the House and Senate would drum up pressure on the rest of the administration.

Dozens of House Democrats have now publicly called for Trump’s removal, either through the 25th Amendment or another set of impeachment proceedings.

Democrats are currently circulating two different sets of impeachment articles, led by Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Reps. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), respectively. It's unclear for now if either of those articles would be “privileged,” which would mean the House would be forced to move quickly to consider it on the floor.

Within the Judiciary Committee, there is a push by several members to return next week to take further action. Several potential options are being discussed, including someone introducing impeachment articles, a concerted push for the 25th Amendment or something else, according to multiple sources.

Several Judiciary members had discussed impeachment on their group text chat on Wednesday, in the same moments that members were evacuating from the House chamber as Trump supporters breached the Capitol building.

It’s uncertain if more Republican lawmakers will deliver additional public statements rebuking the president. A majority of the House GOP caucus still voted to back Trump’s doomed bid to overturn the election results Wednesday night after a day of mayhem in the Capitol.

Kinzinger, along with many Republicans, directly blamed Trump for inciting the violence that led to yesterday’s deadly riots at the Capitol and then refusing to denounce it forcefully. Meanwhile, all three major social media platforms — Twitter, Facebook and Instagram — have suspended Trump’s accounts over his rhetoric.

Kinzinger, a 42-year-old Air Force veteran, has long pushed back on Trump’s foreign policy moves. But while most of the Republican Party was still paralyzed by Trump’s brazen attempts to overturn the election in the immediate aftermath of Nov. 3, Kinzinger was one of the few Republicans willing to stand up to the president.

Marianne LeVine, Kyle Cheney and Olivia Beavers contributed to this report.

It was supposed to be an audacious act of political survival.

Fearing Democrats’ impeachment push would end his career in a southern New Jersey district won by President Donald Trump, Rep. Jeff Van Drew dropped the “D” next to his name and joined the GOP.

But nearly one year and a global pandemic later, Van Drew’s pledge to give his “undying support” to Trump could end up sinking the freshman lawmaker.

Van Drew, like many of his Republican colleagues, now finds himself having to answer for an unpopular president, whose shaky handling of the coronavirus and inflammatory rhetoric has damaged the GOP’s standing nationwide, especially in the suburbs.

Van Drew currently trails in the polls to a well-funded Democratic challenger in Amy Kennedy, a former public school teacher who married into the Kennedy political dynasty. Kennedy is leading Van Drew by five points among registered voters, according to a Monmouth University poll from earlier this month, though it’s within the survey’s margin of error. POLITICO’s election forecasters rate the race as a “toss up.”

Democrats have tried to use Van Drew’s party change and sudden embrace of Trump as a cudgel, branding him as “switcheroo Van Drew” and accusing him of betraying his constituents for his own self interests. In one ad, Democrats even ribbed Van Drew for his taste for flashy suits in a bid to portray him as superficial and inauthentic.

“It felt like he was willing to do or say anything to keep his job,” said Kennedy, who decided to run for office after hearing Van Drew promise his unwavering loyalty to Trump. “There are a lot of people in the district who really respect someone who can be independent-minded, but that’s not what that felt like to them.”

In an interview, Van Drew defended his decision to abandon the Democratic Party, which caught his colleagues off guard and stunned Washington. Van Drew, a dentist who served in the state Legislature for over a decade, noted he was always a conservative-leaning Democrat. But Van Drew argued that the party abandoned its “big tent” principles and was no longer a good fit for him.

Yet despite pledging his fealty to Trump in an Oval Office sit-down, Van Drew now says he is not beholden to any leader — including the president. And Van Drew maintains that voters respect independent-minded politicians, especially in his south Jersey district just outside of Philadelphia, which went for Trump in 2016 but backed Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.

“You vote for the person,” said Van Drew, who won his seat by eight points in 2018. “It’s not your job to vote for me, if you were in my district, because I’m a Republican. It's your job to think about the two candidates and which candidate would do a better job for the district.”

“I didn’t betray anybody,” he added. “When people call me up and they need help, whatever party they are, I help them.”

The match-up between Van Drew and Kennedy — which has become one of the most hotly-contested races in the country — has drawn national attention, with outside resources pouring in. Democrats are not only eager to win back a seat they thought they had already seized in 2018, but also seek revenge for Van Drew’s high-profile defection.

Kennedy, who has notched endorsements from Obama and Joe Biden, has outraised and outspent Van Drew. Kennedy has spent $1.2 million on the airwaves, compared to Van Drew’s $367,000, according to the ad-tracking firm Advertising Analytics. But Van Drew had roughly $600,000 more in the bank than Kennedy as of mid-October, according to the latest FEC reports.

Republicans, meanwhile, have sought to reward Van Drew for joining their ranks while also preventing the GOP from slipping further into the House minority. Since joining the party, Van Drew got a rally from Trump, desirable committee assignments from GOP leaders and a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention.

Notably, Van Drew’s campaign message has focused on calls for bipartisanship and putting country over party. He talks more about American exceptionalism on the campaign trail than he does about Trump, though Van Drew confirmed he plans to vote for the president, despite endorsing home-state colleague Sen. Cory. Booker (D-N.J.) in the Democratic presidential primary.

Van Drew has also tried to label his opponent as a liberal Democrat who supports sanctuary cities, open borders and defunding the police.

“I believe the future of the country depends upon not just my election — of course, I’m not an egomaniac — but on the direction that we take,” Van Drew said. “And the direction that my opponent would want to take is significantly different than the direction I would want to take.”

Switching parties has yielded mixed results in the past, so it was always going to be an electoral gamble for Van Drew, strategists say. He risks infuriating the Democrats who backed him in 2018, while there’s no guarantee Republican voters will trust him. And independents might be turned off by his tight embrace of Trump.

Nearly half of registered voters said they were bothered by Van Drew now running for Congress as a Republican, according to the Monmouth University poll.

Crossing the aisle may have looked like a safer bet for Van Drew during the height of impeachment, when there was widespread concern that swing-district Democrats could suffer at the polls because of the party’s efforts to oust the president.

Had he remained in the Democratic Party and maintained his opposition to impeachment, Van Drew would have likely faced a primary challenge from the left. Before he became a Republican, polling commissioned by Van Drew’s campaign showed just 24 percent of Democratic primary voters believed the congressman deserved to be reelected.

But the political landscape has changed vastly since then. Trump’s approval ratings have slumped both nationally and in Van Drew’s district. The sagging economy is further clouding the outlook for Republicans up and down the ballot. The Monmouth University poll has Joe Biden with a narrow, three-point lead over Trump in a “high turnout” election in the district.

“The president’s popularity has gone down. That hurts someone who pledged undying allegiance to Trump,” said Mike DuHaime, a Republican operative and former adviser to former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Meanwhile, many frontline Democrats are actually well-positioned heading into November, defying expectations and fueling hopes that their party could actually pad their majority even further. And the election has largely been dominated by the coronavirus — not impeachment.

“No one cares about impeachment anymore. It seems like 10 years ago, not 10 months ago.” DuHaime added.

On the coronavirus, Van Drew has echoed Trump’s rhetoric. He railed against health restrictions dampening the economy, highlighted how Trump overcame the virus, criticized D.C. residents for wearing masks even alone in their cars and called on Washington to “go big” on a stimulus package.

“You know what makes people upset where I am in my district? The people that went out of business, the people that lost everything they own, the people that can’t even keep their homes, the people who work for the casinos,” he said.

Van Drew also said he has worked tirelessly on constituent services during the pandemic, which could help boost him in the race. And GOP strategists say Van Drew will likely once again attract some crossover voters — but it may not be enough.

“He has always won because people transcended party to vote for him. But is that enough in a year where Trump is so dominant on the ballot and affecting how everyone views everything?” DuHaime asked. “Now, just so many people this year are voting party-line to send a message to Trump.”

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy threatened to go forward with a long-shot bid to oust Nancy Pelosi from the speakership if Democrats try to impeach Trump officials in order to slow down the Supreme Court confirmation process — an idea that is not being seriously considered by senior Democrats on Capitol Hill.

But even though impeachment is a highly unlikely scenario, McCarthy’s warning could help diffuse a potential internal conflict with conservatives, who have been pushing the California Republican to offer a “motion to vacate” the speaker’s chair — a procedural move that would require Republicans to get a majority of House members to remove Pelosi. And their support will be crucial for McCarthy in any post-November leadership bid.

“I’ll make you this one promise … If [Pelosi] tries to move for an impeachment based upon the president following the constitution, I think there will be a move on the floor to have her no longer — on the question of her being speaker,” McCarthy told reporters Wednesday during a press conference.

“She may think she has a quiver. We do too,” he added.

When pressed this weekend on whether Democrats would try to use impeachment as a delay tactic in the Supreme Court battle, Pelosi didn’t shoot it down, telling ABC “This Week” that Democrats “have arrows in our quiver that I’m not about to discuss right now.” But it is not an idea being discussed by Democratic leadership, nor would it prevent the Senate from filling the vacancy left by late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

And the motion to vacate isn’t being seriously considered by GOP leadership, either.

McCarthy, however, is trying to manage a group of hard-line conservatives who are itching to go after Pelosi, though it’s unclear if McCarthy’s idle threat will be enough to mollify them. Members of the House Freedom Caucus met with McCarthy last week and demanded a special party meeting to discuss a potential plan to force a floor vote on whether Pelosi can retain the speaker’s gavel, POLITICO first reported.

The House GOP conference held a lengthy debate Wednesday morning over the far-fetched idea, which received pushback from McCarthy and other Republicans but widespread support from the Freedom Caucus.

During the private meeting, McCarthy argued that allowing vulnerable frontline Democrats to go on the record against Pelosi could provide them some cover just weeks ahead of the election, according to GOP sources. He made a similar argument on Fox News last week.

"I don't think it's the best move at the moment," McCarthy said. "The best move is to win 218 seats, and that defeats Nancy Pelosi."

Republicans hold only 198 seats, versus 232 for Democrats, making it far easier for Democrats to hit McCarthy than the other way around.

And Democrats have privately warned that they could retaliate against McCarthy, potentially with a censure motion, formal reprimand, or even an ethics complaint, if he follows through with the plan. Doing so would set off a partisan fight among House leaders even as the country suffers through the worst health and economic problems in a century.

At the end of Wednesday’s meeting, there weren’t enough lawmakers present, so lawmakers never voted on whether the House GOP supports a “motion to vacate the chair.” And because of new House rules implemented at the start of this Congress, McCarthy is the only GOP member who can offer the motion.

John Bresnahan contributed to this report.

The maneuvering for power in a possible post-Trump world has already broken out among House Republicans — a worrisome preview for the GOP of potentially chaotic leadership fights this fall.

The party’s long-simmering divides were largely papered over after Donald Trump won the White House in 2016. But members expect the truce among the GOP’s warring factions to crumble if Trump’s presidency ends, and the current leadership could face the fallout.

How that will shake out for Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Minority Whip Steve Scalise and GOP Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney is not completely certain. But according to interviews with over a dozen Republican lawmakers and aides, there’s a growing sense that if Trump loses the White House — and the GOP fails to make meaningful gains in the House — the fight for the future of the party will play out in challenges across leadership.

“If Trump loses, there’s gonna be a mad scramble if we’re in the minority,” said one Republican lawmaker, who was granted anonymity to speak more freely. “There’s people seeing this as an opportunity. … I think it’s gonna be a real fight.”

The early feuding that has already erupted inside the House GOP is being fueled by Trump’s dismal poll numbers and growing fears that Republicans could sink even further into the House minority, underscoring the anxiety in the GOP conference just three months before the election.

Several sources familiar with the party’s internal dynamics cautioned that any potential effort to push out the top Republican leaders might be difficult. Only a simple majority is needed to secure a leadership post in the House minority, and the caucus does not contain a deep bench of potential challengers. There are also positions lower down that could become competitive and offer an outlet for ambitious Republicans, from head of the House GOP’s campaign arm to an open slot as vice conference chair.

But Trump loyalists and more establishment-type conservatives are already trying to stake out ground ahead of the elections: During a recent private GOP conference meeting first reported by POLITICO, some of Trump’s fiercest allies unloaded on Cheney for not being loyal enough to the president and said she’ll be to blame if Trump and the GOP stumble in November.

The infighting then spilled into public view, with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) calling on Cheney — the highest-ranking Republican woman — to be removed from her position as conference chair.

“There are a lot of folks interested in change,” said Gaetz, who has taken particular issue with Cheney’s previous support for a primary opponent to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). “I just don’t understand how we’re going to win the majority back if our leadership is coming after our members in primaries.”

“I always knew Liz to support ‘forever wars,’ but I hope she doesn’t want a forever war with her own conference,” he added in an interview.

Cheney stood her ground during the closed-door meeting and hit back at Gaetz with a jab about his upcoming HBO documentary on his efforts to “drain the swamp”; she also publicly vowed to continue speaking out against Trump whenever she feels it’s necessary.

GOP leaders have sought to put on a united front and downplay suggestions that the party is fractured heading into November. But the dust-up offered a sneak peak of the potentially messy battle to come.

“I think this is all about what’s gonna happen in November. The Freedom Caucus guys are trying to put [Cheney] back in her corner,” said another GOP lawmaker, granted anonymity to speak candidly. “She is playing the long game. Folks in Conference are figuring that out.”

Cheney’s public critiques of Trump and strong support of Dr. Anthony Fauci have been interpreted by some of Cheney’s colleagues as an attempt to build a distinct brand within the GOP and position herself in case Trump — and McCarthy or Scalise — falters, though no one thinks she’s rooting for that scenario.

By contrast, McCarthy and Scalise have both closely tied themselves to Trump; the president even fondly refers to the minority leader as “my Kevin.” A broad GOP defeat could lead to calls for new leadership as the party searches for answers — and a scapegoat.

“Not sure McCarthy and Scalise are prepared to be in the minority and with a Dem President,” the GOP lawmaker said. “Members are already beyond frustrated. That will boil up and get more ugly.”

Said another Republican member: “I think there is going to be a problem in leadership if there’s a loss ... If we gain some seats, I think Kevin will stay there.”

But even if Republicans lose the White House and additional House seats, McCarthy and Scalise might be just fine. The makeup of the GOP conference has grown more conservative in recent years and a smaller House GOP with fewer moderates could be even more Trumpy after November, regardless of whether the president sticks around another four years. Embracing Trump tightly is hardly a sin in today’s GOP.

McCarthy’s allies also argue that the minority leader’s fundraising chops, relationships with members and efforts to lead the party through impeachment would boost his case. Scalise, meanwhile, has earned plaudits for helping the GOP clinch a number of wins on procedural floor votes and is also a strong fundraiser; he has never faced a leadership challenge.

There’s also the issue of who, if anyone, could mount a serious challenge to the top GOP leaders.

Cheney — an ambitious, fast-rising star in the party — has been floated as a potential speaker or leader one day. The Wyoming Republican even passed on a bid for an open Senate seat to stay in the House, a clear sign of where her priorities lie. Her allies have lauded Cheney’s messaging tactics and forthrightness while still remaining loyal to Trump’s conservative agenda; they also think she could help the party make sorely needed inroads with women voters.

But the blowup with Trump’s allies — and a public rebuke from Trump on Twitter — have raised new questions about Cheney’s future and her upward mobility in the House GOP, especially if Trump does win. Cheney’s fundraising also pales in comparison with that of McCarthy and Scalise, though her office pointed out that’s because she is focused on raising money directly for candidates and the campaign arm.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) acknowledged that Cheney’s critiques of Trump could hurt her. But, he added, “you’ve got to realize, in families there’s always disputes.”

“I don’t think there’s any ramifications for her,” added Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.). “She’s doing such a good job.”

Pushing out the highest-ranking woman in the GOP could also be bad optics — unless a different woman lands a spot somewhere in leadership. Gaetz declined to name a potential challenger to Cheney and said he doesn't want the job himself.

Cheney secured her current leadership post by announcing a challenge to another lawmaker, but it’s unclear whether she’d be willing to make a play for a higher position if it means taking on McCarthy or Scalise. When she announced her plans to stay in the House, she went out of her way to say she looked forward to seeing McCarthy as speaker.

At a recent news conference, Cheney downplayed the dispute with her conservative colleagues and instead focused on highlighting how awful a Biden-Schumer-Pelosi agenda would be for Republicans.

“Certain groups like to throw stones a lot. Leadership has to take it and roll with it, and that’s what she’s doing,” said Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.), alluding to the hard-line House Freedom Caucus’ recent ambush of Cheney. “For anybody to be agitating, maybe there’s just personality differences.”

It was only two years ago that Rep. Jim Jordan, a notorious troublemaker for leadership and co-founder of the Freedom Caucus, unsuccessfully challenged McCarthy for GOP leader. Since then, however, the Ohio Republican has been seen as more of a team player and even earned a coveted role as the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee.

But during the contentious GOP conference meeting, his colleague saw glimmers of the old Jordan as he piled on Cheney, suggesting that her Trump criticism could hurt the president and the party at the polls — the exact type of argument that he or his colleagues would likely make if they try to target Cheney after an electoral bloodbath.

“If a president goes down, then you don’t win back a majority,” said Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), who also spoke up against Cheney during the meeting. “People are always free to speak their minds. But we’ll see how it goes from here to November.”

Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus tore into Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) during a heated GOP conference meeting on Tuesday, lobbing attacks at her for breaking with President Donald Trump, supporting Dr. Anthony Fauci and backing a primary opponent to one of their colleagues.

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a Freedom Caucus co-founder and one of Trump’s top allies, called out Cheney, the GOP conference chair, for all the times she has opposed Trump and began ticking off some recent high-profile examples, according to two sources in the room. While Jordan praised her defense of Trump during impeachment, he also said Cheney’s recent rebukes of Trump — which have focused on Trump’s handling of the coronavirus, his Twitter rhetoric, and his foreign policy — were not helpful.

Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, the head of the Freedom Caucus, even accused Cheney of undermining the GOP’s ability to win back the House and said that if someone has a problem with Trump, they should keep it to themselves.

Cheney responded to the criticism by saying she disagrees with Jordan’s assessment and making clear her views are her own.

To Jordan, whose arch-conservative Freedom Caucus was a constant pain for GOP leadership when the party was in the majority, Cheney said: “I look forward to hearing your comments about being a team player when we’re back in the majority,” according to two sources in the room.

After the meeting, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida — who is not a member of the Freedom Caucus but is closely aligned with the conservative crew — tweeted that Cheney should step down from her position as the No. 3 House Republican. He also discussed at length his issues with Cheney in the most recent episode of his podcast, which posted Tuesday afternoon.

“Liz Cheney has worked behind the scenes (and now in public) against @realDonaldTrump and his agenda. House Republicans deserve better as our Conference Chair,” tweeted Gaetz, who himself once split with Trump over a war powers resolution. “Liz Cheney should step down or be removed.”

Donald Trump Jr. also took a swipe at Cheney: “We already have one Mitt Romney, we don’t need another ... we also don’t need the endless wars she advocates for,” he tweeted.

The president, however, has been silent about Cheney’s public criticism, and has even heaped praise on her at White House events.

Cheney — a staunch conservative who quickly climbed the leadership ranks and has wide support in the House GOP conference — votes with Trump 97 percent of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight. She also is one of the Trump campaign’s fundraising co-captains and strongly defended him during the impeachment battle.

During a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Cheney told reporters that she takes her role in leadership “seriously” and that “healthy exchanges” are good for the party, noting that she and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) — who confronted Cheney during the meeting — are in a “good place.” Cheney was later spotted on the House floor having a conversation with Massie. She also noted that Donald Trump Jr. is not a member of the House GOP conference.

Then, unprompted, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) chimed in to defend Cheney: “We're honored to have her as conference chair,” he said.

The pile-on came during the House GOP’s first in-person meeting in months, with large in-person gatherings in the Capitol mostly replaced by conference calls during the pandemic. And after Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) tested positive for coronavirus last week, leadership stepped up its safety precautions for Tuesday's meeting by requiring masks and temperature checks at the door.

The meeting also comes as there is growing concern in the GOP about Trump’s slumping poll numbers and his leadership during the coronavirus pandemic. Cheney has been one of the Republicans who has been willing to publicly call out Trump — a risky move in today’s GOP, but one that could position herself for a post-Trump world — and has managed to avoid the kind of scathing retort that Trump has doled out to others in the party.

But tensions over Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican, flared during Tuesday’s closed-door conference meeting.

The confrontation began when Gaetz got on the microphone to unload on Cheney for previously donating to a Republican primary challenger to Massie and demanded answers about leadership's policy on backing primary opponents to incumbents. Cheney later pulled her endorsement of Massie's primary opponent and requested a refund for her donation after past racist tweets from the candidate resurfaced.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and Biggs also defended Massie and expressed their concerns about GOP lawmakers playing in primaries involving their colleagues. McCarthy eventually intervened, saying they shouldn't go after each other.

Cheney told Massie that his issue is with Trump, not her, since the president has openly called for Massie’s ouster. She also told Massie he was a "special case." But Massie insisted his issue was indeed with Cheney. Meanwhile, Cheney responded to Gaetz by telling him she looks forward to seeing his upcoming HBO documentary. A little bit later, she again took a jab at Gaetz, saying that filming a documentary isn't the way to win back the majority.

But the attacks on Cheney didn’t end there. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who faces a competitive reelection battle this fall, complained about Cheney’s support of Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, and pointed out that his Democratic opponent for November's general election even retweeted one of Cheney’s tweets praising Fauci.

In recent weeks, some White House officials and other Trump allies who are frustrated by the slow pace of reopening the economy have tried to undermine Fauci.

The Wyoming congresswoman responded by forcefully defending Fauci and saying they should focus on defeating the virus, not launching attacks against individuals who are trying to accomplish that mission. Cheney again reiterated her support for Fauci during Tuesday's presser, saying his expertise is "absolutely" needed and she "can't think of a better person" for that job.

At one point during the GOP conference meeting Tuesday, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) also chimed in, focusing his ire on national security issues and Cheney’s hawkish foreign policy stance. Norman even brought up the Bush administration, to which Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, replied: “I’m not a Bush.”

Sarah Ferris contributed to this report.

Rep. Liz Cheney has suddenly become one of the most outspoken GOP critics of Donald Trump.

Even more surprising: The Wyoming Republican hasn’t faced any serious blowback from the president.

Criticizing Trump is not new for Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican. But she has increasingly called out Trump over his foreign policy decisions and leadership during the coronavirus crisis — a risky move in today’s GOP, where any break with Trump can fuel a primary challenge or nasty Twitter tirade from the president.

But Cheney’s found a balancing act that few Republicans have been able to achieve. And as the prospect of a post-Trump GOP begins to come into view, her relative independence from the president could position her for another rapid rise in party leadership.

“She’s got values, she’s got guts, and she says what’s on her mind. That resonates with a lot of people,” said Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.).

In her latest rebuke of Trump, Cheney openly questioned whether the president was aware of reports that the Russians offered Afghan militants bounties to kill U.S. troops and demanded the administration take a more aggressive posture toward the Kremlin.

And a few days before, Cheney took a veiled shot at Trump by tweeting out a photo of her dad wearing a mask with the caption: “Dick Cheney says WEAR A MASK. #realmenwearmasks” — the same phrase that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been using to take digs at Trump, and one that touches on a sensitive subject for the president: his manhood.

Cheney’s colleagues say she’s avoided Trump’s wrath because there’s no question about her credentials — the name Cheney is practically synonymous with conservatism — and because she’s strategic about her battles with Trump.

Plus, Cheney aggressively defends the president in the spots where it matters to the White House, like impeachment, and spends far more time attacking Trump’s favorite foes, such as Pelosi or China. That has enabled Cheney to carve out her own space in the party, without alienating Trump’s base or jeopardizing her bona fides on the right.

“I’ve never known our conference chair to not speak her mind, in a professional and thoughtful way,” said retiring Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.). But, he added, Cheney is also “a strong defender of the president where they agreed. So she calls it when she sees it — sort of the Wyoming spirit, I guess.”

Cheney’s office declined to make her available for an interview, and she refused to answer questions from POLITICO in the Capitol this week.

Cheney’s allies insist her public critiques of the president are not motivated by her future political ambitions, but rather by her personal convictions.

Still, some GOP lawmakers and strategists believe that putting some distance between her and Trump — in contrast to her fellow Republican leaders in the House, like Kevin McCarthy of California and Steve Scalise of Louisiana — could come in handy if Trump goes down in November.

“If the elections are as dismal for Republicans as they appear today, the finger-pointing will begin immediately,” said GOP strategist Doug Heye. “That presents an opportunity for someone like Cheney to say that, while they supported much of the agenda, they were a truth-teller when the party needed it.”

Added one Republican lawmaker, who requested anonymity to speak frankly: “I believe she is trying to establish her own lane for the future, distinct from Trump and his acolytes.”

Cheney, the elder daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and one of the party’s most hawkish national security voices, has already quickly climbed the leadership ranks in a GOP conference long dominated by older men.

In only her second term in the House, Cheney, 53, was tapped by her colleagues to serve as the party’s conference chair — a key messaging post within the House GOP, especially with Republicans in the minority. Cheney also signaled where she saw her political future when she declined to run for an open Senate seat, instead opting to remain in a House leadership role that could catapult her to the speakership one day.

“Remember, she had a chance to run for Senate and decided to stay in the House, which I think shows a lot of where her passion lies,” said Rep. Drew Ferguson of Georgia, the GOP’s chief deputy whip.

Since arriving in Congress in 2017, Cheney has earned a reputation for clashing with members of her own party: She confronted then-Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin over defense spending, duked it out with Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky over military action toward Iran, called for Rep. Steve King of Iowa to step down for making racist remarks and briefly launched a primary bid against Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming.

So it has come as no surprise to Cheney’s colleagues that she has tangled with Trump, too. But in recent months, her public criticism has seemed to grow louder.

In one notable incident last month, McCarthy — a close Trump ally the president calls “My Kevin” — repeatedly dodged questions during a news conference about Trump’s baseless tweets suggesting MSNBC host Joe Scarborough murdered a former aide. Cheney, however, went out of her way to make clear how she felt: she vehemently disagreed with the attacks.

“I do think the president should stop tweeting about Joe Scarborough. We’re in the middle of a pandemic,” Cheney told a group of reporters after the news conference ended. “He’s the commander in chief of this nation. And it’s causing great pain to the family of the young woman who died.”

For some, it was reminiscent of when Cheney stood up for Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, two impeachment witnesses who were both publicly attacked by Trump on Twitter.

Cheney has also positioned herself as a voice of reason in the GOP when it comes to the coronavirus crisis. When Trump was calling to reopen the economy as early as Easter, she warned against it. And when many on the right were attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, Cheney rushed to his defense.

“Dr. Fauci is one of the finest public servants we have ever had. He is not a partisan. His only interest is saving lives,” she tweeted. “We need his expertise and his judgment to defeat this virus. All Americans should be thanking him. Every day.”

Cheney is even more outspoken when it comes to foreign policy and national security issues. She called Trump’s recently announced plans to remove U.S. troops from Germany “dangerously misguided,” blasted the president’s idea to host peace talks with Taliban leaders at Camp David, and said it would be a “very serious mistake” if Trump failed to retaliate against Iran for downing an American surveillance drone.

But unlike some of the other Republicans who have lambasted Trump, Cheney has managed to remain unscathed. Trump’s base is notably not driven by issues of foreign policy.

And in fact, the president has repeatedly praised the two-term congresswoman and singled her out at White House events, declaring that Cheney has an “unlimited future” and that Wyoming is “lucky” to have her as its representative.

“She’s never personal about it,” Ferguson said of Cheney’s criticism of the president. “It’s an honest discussion about how she feels about the policy. And so many people attack the president on personality.”

The House GOP has selected two of President Donald Trump’s fiercest allies to serve as the top Republicans on a pair of key congressional committees, placing the lawmakers directly on the frontlines of beating back Democratic oversight efforts.

During a closed-door conference meeting on Tuesday, House Republicans unanimously approved Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio to be the ranking member on the powerful Judiciary Committee and retiring Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina to be the ranking member on the Oversight Committee, according to sources inside the room. The GOP Steering Committee, which includes top members of leadership, recommended the moves last week.

The reshuffling comes after Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), currently the top Republican on the Judiciary panel, decided to launch a Senate bid last month. Under current GOP conference rules, Collins is required to step down from his top post while he seeks higher office. But Collins won’t turn over the ranking member reins until March 12, with leadership agreeing to give him some time to transition his staff.

“Jordan has done an excellent job,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) at his weekly press conference. “The one thing I would take away from all this: we have a united Republican party. Much different in contrast to the Democratic party, where they have their own civil war.”

McCarthy’s blessing is just the latest example of how far his relationship with Jordan and Meadows has come: Jordan unsuccessfully challenged McCarthy for minority leader in 2018. Jordan then expressed interest in the ranking member role on the Judiciary Committee, but ended up running for Oversight instead.

And Jordan and Meadows, co-founders of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, were long a thorn in the side of GOP leadership when Republicans were in the majority. But McCarthy’s newfound alliance with the duo — which started when Trump won the White House but has only strengthened in the minority — is sure to earn the minority leader some major points with conservatives down the road.

With Jordan and Meadows being elevated to their new roles, the White House will have some of their top attack dogs in key defender roles. The House Judiciary Committee has jurisdiction over a wide range of hot-button issues, including impeachment, guns and immigration, while the influential Oversight panel has broad investigative authorities.

Jordan, who came to Congress in 2007, has been one of Trump’s most aggressive defenders in the House and was even temporarily placed on the House Intelligence Committee for the public impeachment hearings. Trump and his allies wanted Jordan on the panel because they consider him to be one of their most effective members at combatting Democrats. And Jordan has also become a fundraising power house, raking in $1.4 million in the last three months of 2019 — an new all-time high for him.

Meadows, meanwhile, was one of Trump’s earliest supporters on Capitol Hill and has become one of his closest confidants. He is set to retire at the end of this year and has signaled interest in a job in the Trump administration.

“It’s an honor that @GOPLeader and our colleagues on the Steering Committee have given me the chance to help lead @JudiciaryGOP,” Jordan tweeted.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Thursday took a shot at Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah — the lone Republican to vote to convict President Donald Trump.

“I don’t think Romney is effective in any shape or form,” McCarthy told a group of reporters outside the House chamber.

But McCarthy dodged questions about whether Romney should be expelled from the Republican Conference, which some Trump allies have called for. He also wouldn’t discuss whether it was appropriate for Trump to question the Utah Republican’s Mormon faith. In announcing that he would vote “guilty” on the abuse of power charge during Wednesday’s Senate impeachment vote, Romney got choked up while discussing how his decision was guided by his faith.

While Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming said she disagreed with Romney’s decision, she had a different take than McCarthy: She called him a “man of conscience” and said he is a “real value for us to have in the Senate.

“Senator Romney is a good and honorable man,” Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican, said in an interview. “And I don’t think anybody ought to question his faith.”

Trump, speaking during a National Prayer Breakfast in Washington Thursday morning, complained that some people use “religion as a crutch,” though he didn’t mention Romney by name.

“I never heard the president use the word ‘Romney’ at the prayer breakfast,” said McCarthy, who was also in attendance.

McCarthy, one of Trump’s closest allies on Capitol Hill, kept his troops together during the impeachment vote in the House and helped deliver a bipartisan vote against both articles. Trump and his allies were hoping for a repeat in the Senate, but Romney broke ranks to join all Democrats in voting to remove the president on one charge — the first senator in American history to vote to convict a president from their own party.

Trump on Thursday praised McCarthy during a victory speech at the White House, predicting that the backlash to impeachment would help Republicans win back the House this November.

“Kevin McCarthy has done an incredible job,” Trump said. “You’ll be speaker of the House. I really believe it.”

Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah), who sits on the House Intelligence Committee and helped defend Trump from impeachment, said he was “very surprised” by Romney’s decision and said there is “a lot of anger” among Republicans over the defection. But Stewart added that he doesn’t think Romney should be punished for his vote.

“If we expelled everyone who voted differently, than we’d have no one in the conference,” Stewart told reporters.