Category: kevin mccarthy

How the midterms could impact the Russia-Ukraine war

Posted on (Updated by Colin Meyn

The midterm elections, which are largely being fought over inflation, crime and other domestic issues, could have a huge impact on America’s role in the Russia-Ukraine war. 

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the likely Speaker in a GOP majority, has talked about how Ukraine would not get a “blank check” from the U.S. with Republicans in control of the House.  

GOP victories by pro-Trump candidates in the House and Senate could also amplify isolationist voices that have questioned the Biden administration’s steady spending in support of Ukraine.  

“I just see a freight train coming, and that is Trump and his operation turning against aid for Ukraine,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told MSNBC last month, underscoring a widely-held concern among Democrats. He added that there could be “a real crisis where the House Republican majority would refuse to support additional aid to Ukraine.” 

Statements from GOP lawmakers such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) have added to the anxiety. During a rally last week, she said a GOP majority would not spend “another penny” on Ukraine.  

To be sure, there are many voices within the GOP that have been highly supportive of Ukraine during the conflict with Russia, including Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).  

Sen. James Risch (Idaho) and Rep. Michael McCaul (Texas), the top Republicans in the foreign affairs committees in each chamber, have been leading voices in support of arming Ukraine, often pushing for Biden to do more.   

Danielle Pletka, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a former Republican Senate foreign policy staff member, said a majority of Republicans want to back Ukraine against Russia’s aggression.  

“For me, it is about the great battle of the substantive versus the loud,” she said, placing figures like Greene in the latter category. “But these are not people who have any power at all in the House or the Senate.”

But it is also true that McCarthy’s comments reflect skepticism about U.S. economic and military support for Ukraine within his conference. 

And the first test of GOP resistance to additional Ukraine aid could come before the end of this session, with the Biden administration expected to push for another aid package during the lame-duck period before January.

Rep. Jim Banks (Ind.), chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, said McCarthy was “exactly right” with his no-blank-check comments.  

“Now Democrats are screaming and saying 'Well, McCarthy says that, we know he's gonna be Speaker of the House. We're gonna pass another $50 billion in the lame duck.' It’s just absurd. It’s insanity,” he told Fox News last month.  

That package is likely to pass with Democrats still in control of the House and Senate no matter the results of the midterms. But the level of GOP opposition could indicate how much of the caucus remains on board with strong support for Kyiv. And Banks’s remarks could find even more support if the U.S. economy tips into a recession in 2023.  

Ukraine is likely to be watching the results of the midterms with some anxiety, though Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told the BBC last week that he was confident that both parties would keep up support for Kyiv after meetings with lawmakers.  

“I got a lot of signals that it doesn't matter who will steer … bipartisan support for Ukraine will be continued,” he said. “I believe in that.” 

Andres Kasekamp, a political science professor at the University of Toronto who studies the war, said the GOP is “exploiting” the narrative that America must choose between investing in the U.S. on one hand or helping Ukraine on the other. He accused some in the GOP of abandoning the idea that upholding a rules-based international order is in the U.S. interest.  

“That used to be something that was common sense and in the DNA of the Republican Party,” he said. “Now the sort of populists on the far right of the Republican Party have changed the narrative, and it’s dangerous.” 

So far, Americans remain largely united behind U.S. support for Ukraine, thought recent polls have shown a growing partisan divide. 

A Reuters-Ipsos poll conducted in early October found that 81 percent of Democrats and 66 percent of Republicans agreed that the U.S. should continue to support Ukraine, despite nuclear warnings from Russia.  

A Wall Street Journal poll this month found that 81 percent of Democrats support additional financial aid for Ukraine, compared to 35 percent of Republicans. And almost half of Republicans said the U.S. is doing too much, up from 6 percent at the start of the war.  

“It plays right into the hands of Putin,” Kasekamp said of skepticism toward Ukraine support. “The Russians from the beginning have tried to dissuade the West from helping the Ukrainians.” 

Former President Trump has said current U.S. policy risks World War III, advocating instead for the U.S. to pressure Ukraine to open peace talks with Russia.  

Last month, he found rare common cause with progressive Democrats in the House, who released and then retracted a letter calling on President Biden to ramp up diplomatic efforts to end the war.  

Tuesday’s election could bolster the ranks of Ukraine skeptics. J.D. Vance, the Trump-backed GOP Senate nominee in Ohio, said earlier this year that he didn’t care about Ukraine, and wanted Biden to focus on the U.S. border.  

Pletka, the former GOP staffer, said she worried that the far right and far left — for different reasons — will decide to capitulate to Putin and pressure Ukraine to take a peace deal.  

“I could absolutely see the appeasement wing of the Democratic Party having a meeting of minds, if you can call them that, with the fortress America-first wing of the Republican party and doing the wrong thing,” she said.  

Despite Ukraine projecting confidence in continued support from both parties, Suriya Evans-Pritchard Jayanti, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said Kyiv has cause for concern.  

“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy learned the hard way in 2019 how much domestic U.S. politics can affect Ukraine’s reality,” she wrote last week, referring to Trump’s first impeachment trial.  

“He and his team would be right to worry about next week’s polls. Whether or not the GOP will follow through on its threats to scale back Ukraine aid is impossible to predict, but it is definitely a real possibility,” she added. 

GOP Leader McCarthy Again Gets Squishy When Asked About Impeaching Biden

Posted on by Becky Noble

As Republican voters head to the polls with the intention of electing people they believe will hold Democrats accountable for the last two years, celebration might be a bit premature.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), likely the next Speaker of the House, is doing his best to let the air out of that balloon.

Recently, McCarthy sat down with CNN’s Melanie Zanona, who asked the GOP leader, “…Investigations a huge priority, I know you’ve said not going to predetermine outcome, but is impeachment on the table?” 

While understandably wanting to keep his cards close to the vest, McCarthy dodged the question like he was in The Matrix:

“You know what’s on the table? Accountability. Shouldn’t we know where the origins of COVID actually started? They didn’t have one hearing. Shouldn’t we know what happened in the last 60 days of Afghanistan, so we wouldn’t repeat that again, so we wouldn’t have 13 new Goldstar families, that should have never happened? Shouldn’t we know why the DOJ would take it upon themselves to go after parents that would go to school board meetings?”

RELATED: GOP Chairwoman: If Republicans Win Control Of Congress They’ll Work With Biden 

Follow Up And Squishy Response

McCarthy continued, saying, “Shouldn’t we know where the taxpayers’ money is being spent? I call that accountability. That’s a responsibility for congress regardless of whose ever party is in the White House.”

To Zanona’s credit, she didn’t let McCarthy off the hook just yet. She followed up with, “Some of your members already calling for impeachment. What do you say to those members?”

McCarthy dodged again:

“One thing I’ve known about the land of America, it’s the rule of law. And we will hold the rule of law and we won’t play politics with this. We’ll never use impeachment for political purposes. That doesn’t mean if something rises to the occasion it would not be used. At any other time, it wouldn’t matter if it’s Democrats or Republicans. But the idea of what Democrats have done, what Adam Schiff has done, is treacherous… We’re better than that. We need to get our nation back on track. That’s what the Commitment to America does.”

RELATED: Elon Musk Endorses A Red Wave, Urges Independents To Vote Republican

Is This An Early Sign Of A GOP Cave-In?

Kevin McCarthy was not the only Republican who appeared to be getting wobbly in the knees. Over the weekend, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel was interviewed by CNN’s Dana Bash. 

McDaniel is under the mistaken idea that Joe Biden is equivalent to Bill Clinton in 1994, and that Biden will view the election outcome as a sign that they want him to work with the GOP.

She stated, “If we win back the House and the Senate, it’s the American people saying to Joe Biden, ‘We want you to work on behalf of us and we want you to work across the aisle and solve the problems that we are dealing with.'” 

McDaniel must not spend a lot of time talking with Republicans. They want their leaders to oppose Biden and his agenda. Not “work with him.”

While Kevin McCarthy may not want to appear as if he is embracing the idea of impeachment, there could be a lot of pressure on him to pull the impeachment trigger.

Joe Kent is an America First Republican running for Congress in Washington state. He essentially laid out the case for Biden impeachment that could be tempting for Republicans, and their constituents.

“I say if you’re the Commander-in-Chief and you invite an invasion on our southern border, if you’re the Commander-in-Chief and you leave Americans on the battlefield in Afghanistan to fall into the hands of the Taliban, what are we supposed to do with you?” 

It’s a fair point. 

Newsflash to Republicans. If the American people give you the keys to the House, it is not because they want you to be nice.

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GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy Pre-Surrenders, Saying GOP Won’t Impeach Biden

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

Kevin McCarthy doesn’t seem as enthralled with the prospect of impeaching President Biden quite as much as Republican voters might be.

The House Minority Leader, in an interview with Punchbowl News, was already admitting that should the GOP win back congressional control in the 2022 midterms, they will not impeach President Biden.

“I think the country doesn’t like impeachment used for political purposes at all,” said McCarthy. “If anyone ever rises to that occasion, you have to, but I think the country wants to heal and … start to see the system that actually works.”

Later, when asked if anyone in the current administration has risen to the level of impeachment, the California Republican responded, “I don’t see it before me right now.”

RELATED: Kevin McCarthy, GOP Worked to Oust MAGA Republican Madison Cawthorn, America First Candidates

Kevin Flakin’: We’re Better Than the Democrats

Kevin McCarthy went on to hint that he plans to hold a Republican majority to a higher standard than that displayed by Democrats during the Trump era.

And they absolutely deserve no such favor.

“You watch what the Democrats did – they all came out and said they would impeach before Trump was ever sworn in,” he said. “There wasn’t a purpose for it.”

Somebody with an actual spine would conclude that this means it’s time to play by the rules already put forth. But then, McCarthy doesn’t come off as such.

This perpetual cycle of ‘we’re above that kind of thing’ while watching Democrats treat Republican president after Republican president as the next coming of Hitler needs to end.

Does he truly think that if Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis wins the presidency in 2024 that Democrats won’t pursue impeachment to the ends of the Earth, with little to no ‘purpose’?

RELATED: Matt Gaetz Warns There Are Republican Squishes Already Trying to Shut Down Biden Impeachment

Afraid of the ‘I’ Word

MAGA Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL), in an interview in recent weeks, claimed there are Republican lawmakers already voicing opposition to impeaching President Biden.

“There are current members of the Republican majority, people who will be in the next Congress, who are arguing very, very fervently that they will oppose the use of the ‘I’ word, impeachment, in any context for any official in the Biden administration,” Gaetz reported.

“And I believe that would totally misunderstand the mandate that the American people are giving us.”

A Rasmussen Reports survey last month indicates that 52% of American voters overall support the impeachment of Joe Biden.

That includes an overwhelming number of Republican voters and even half of Independents. Meaning the only group who opposes impeachment are the Democrats.

Democrats and elected Republicans, it seems.

Does McCarthy believe he works for them?

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Even then, Rasmussen Reports indicates a third of Democrat voters believe President Biden should be impeached.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), unlike McCarthy, understands that the Democrats are the ones who opened Pandora’s Box when it comes to the ‘I’ word.

“Whether it’s justified or not, the Democrats weaponized impeachment. They used it for partisan purposes to go after Trump because they disagreed with him,” Cruz said.

That’s the bar now, Chief.

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Greene: If McCarthy wants to make base happy, he’ll ‘give me a lot of power’

Posted on (Updated by Emily Brooks

Firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) warned that the Republican base would be “very unhappy” if House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) does not give her more power if Republicans take control of the chamber next year.

In a New York Times Magazine profile on Monday examining Greene’s rise in influence and future, the Georgia congresswoman indicated that McCarthy would have to adopt her “a lot more aggressive” approach toward President Biden, whom she has introduced multiple articles of impeachment against.

“I think that to be the best Speaker of the House and to please the base, he’s going to give me a lot of power and a lot of leeway,” Greene said. “And if he doesn’t, they’re going to be very unhappy about it. I think that’s the best way to read that. And that’s not in any way a threat at all. I just think that’s reality.”

McCarthy, who is aiming to become Speaker in a House majority, has given the confrontational right flank of the House GOP a seat at the table as he aims to shore up support. Greene was in attendance at a House GOP “Commitment to America” midterm policy and platform rollout event in Pennsylvania last month.

Greene was stripped of her committee assignments soon after being sworn into office as punishment for her posts about conspiracy theories and liking a Facebook comment that called for the assassination of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). 

McCarthy has pledged to restore Greene’s committee assignments, suggesting at one point that she could have even “better committees” than the ones she was assigned to before – the Education and Labor and Budget committees.

“I would like to be on Oversight,” Greene told the New York Times Magazine. “I would also like to be on Judiciary. I think both of those I’d be good on.”

Republicans on both the House Oversight and Reform and House Judiciary committees have been preparing to bring a spotlight to the business activities of Biden’s son Hunter Biden’s business activities and social media suppression of an election-season 2020 New York Post story revealing the contents of his laptop.

The committees have helped to skyrocket Republican members to stardom in the past.

“I completely deserve it. I’ve been treated like [expletive]. I have been treated like garbage,” Greene said.

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), ranking member on the House Oversight and Reform Committee who is in line for the chairmanship in a GOP majority, indicated that he would welcome Greene to his committee.

“If Americans entrust Republicans with the majority next Congress, we look forward to the Steering Committee adding new GOP members to the committee like Rep. Greene with energy and a strong interest in partnering with us in our efforts to rein in the unaccountable Swamp and to hold the Biden Administration accountable for its many self-inflicted crises that it has unleashed on the American people,” Comer told New York Times Magazine.

McCarthy made fellow Republican cry in post-Jan. 6 meeting: book

Posted on (Updated by Jared Gans

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) engaged in an argument after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection in which he yelled at Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) about protecting Republicans from former President Trump, making her cry, The Washington Post reported. 

The Post reported that McCarthy and Herrera Beutler met in his office on Feb. 25 of last year, during which he said he was “taking all the heat” to protect people from Trump and that he alone was holding the Republican Party together. 

The report is based on an excerpt of a new book from Post reporter Karoun Demirjian and Politico reporter Rachel Bade, “Unchecked: The Untold Story Behind Congress’s Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump,” which is set to be released next week. 

“I have been working with Trump to keep him from going after Republicans like you and blowing up the party and destroying all our work!” McCarthy reportedly told Herrera Beutler. 

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Herrera Beutler started crying and apologized for not notifying him in advance that she confirmed to media organizations that McCarthy called Trump on Jan. 6 to urge him to tell the rioters to leave the Capitol. 

McCarthy told her that she should have come to him and that “this is no way to thank me.” 

“What did you want me to do? Lie?” Herrera Beutler said. “I did what I thought was right.” 

McCarthy and Herrera Beutler denied the report in a joint statement to the Post, saying that they know it is wrong because they were the only two in the room for the conversation. 

“Beyond multiple inaccuracies — it is dramatized to fit an on-screen adaptation, not to serve as a document of record,” they said. 

Demirjian and Bade said in the book that their reporting was based on conversations with a person who was in the room during the argument and multiple lawmakers who said they heard an account of the argument from McCarthy. 

“McCarthy’s tirade against Herrera Beutler was just the start of what would become a GOP-wide campaign to whitewash the details of what happened on January 6 in the aftermath of the second impeachment,” they wrote. 

Trump staunchly opposed the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, backing primary challengers to those who ran for reelection. Most of those who voted to impeach, including Herrera Beutler, were either defeated in their primary or chose not to run for reelection.

Matt Gaetz Warns There Are Republican Squishes Already Trying to Shut Down Biden Impeachment

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

MAGA Representative Matt Gaetz, in an interview on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, claims there are Republican lawmakers already voicing opposition to impeaching President Biden should the GOP take back the House.

Gaetz also says some of his Republican colleagues are working against the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who he accuses of “purposefully turning our border into a turnstile.”

“There are current members of the Republican majority, people who will be in the next Congress, who are arguing very, very fervently that they will oppose the use of the ‘I’ word, impeachment, in any context for any official in the Biden administration,” he told Bannon.

“And I believe that would totally misunderstand the mandate that the American people are giving us.”

RELATED: MAGA Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene Calls For Biden’s Impeachment Following ‘President Butterbeans’ Divisive Speech

Gaetz: Biden Impeachment is a Priority

Gaetz has insisted impeachment must be a priority for Republicans should the midterms yield control of the House. He notes that it’s time to start fighting fire with fire.

Democrats, after all, did not hesitate to impeach Trump for a pair of absurd reasons that did not amount to high crimes and misdemeanors.

“If we don’t use the same tools, if we don’t engage in impeachment inquiries to get the documents and the testimony and the information we need, then I believe that our voters will feel betrayed,” said Gaetz.

“And that likely could be the biggest win that Democrats could hope for in 2024,” he surmised.

 

RELATED: Hollywood Conservative Jon Voight Calls On Joe Biden To Be Impeached

Plenty of Reasons to Impeach – But Who Will Actually Do It?

The Political Insider reported in December that the GOP is planning investigations on several fronts should they prevail in the midterms: The IRS, the National Security Agency, parents of school children, the border crisis, COVID response, and Afghanistan.

While it would be nice to get them all on record, we can only guess as to which Republicans would actually follow through on an impeachment inquiry into President Biden regarding any of these issues.

I’m pretty confident Gaetz would pursue the inquiry.

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) as recently as a few weeks ago insisted Biden should be impeached following his divisive speech in which he called Republicans who back Donald Trump “extremists.”

“I guess when President Butterbeans is frail, weak, and dementia ridden, the Hitler imagery was their attempt to make him look ‘tough’ while he declares war on half of America as enemies of the state,” Greene tweeted.

Another MAGA Rep., Lauren Boebert (R-CO), wasn’t shy about calling for Biden’s impeachment over last year’s disastrous troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Who else would be on board?

Representative Nancy Mace, by contrast, recently made the absurd argument that impeaching President Biden would be a “divisive” move.

“I will not vote for impeachment of any president if I feel that due process was stripped away, for anyone,” she told MSNBC. “I typically vote constitutionally, regardless of who is in power.”

Senator Ted Cruz has suggested the House has grounds to begin impeachment hearings against President Biden.

“If we take the House, which I said is overwhelmingly likely, then I think we will see serious investigations of the Biden administration,” Cruz said.

Cruz, unlike the Republican squishes who Gaetz claims are already backing down, understands that the Democrats are the ones who opened Pandora’s Box.

“Whether it’s justified or not, the Democrats weaponized impeachment. They used it for partisan purposes to go after Trump because they disagreed with him,” Cruz said.

According to Rasmussen Reports, a majority of voters – including a third of Democrats – believe President Biden should be impeached.

“Republican voters overwhelmingly believe President Joe Biden should be impeached, and half of independents agree,” the polling outfit reports.

GOP lawmakers and candidates should be asked if they’d be willing to consider moving on a matter that a majority of Americans want them to pursue.

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McCarthy keeps right flank tight as he closes in on Speakership

Posted on (Updated by Emily Brooks

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is giving the confrontational right flank of the GOP conference a seat at the table as he aims to shore up their support for Speaker if Republicans take the chamber next year.

McCarthy is eyeing having to manage a conference next year that is expected to tilt further to the right with a higher proportion of allies loyal to former President Trump. 

And he’s starting now by including controversial figures and members of the House Freedom Caucus in high-profile events in an effort to seemingly win them over — unlike some of his GOP predecessors.

Firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) will be at a rollout event outside Pittsburgh on Friday for McCarthy’s Commitment to America policy platform, a list of policy priorities inspired by the 1994 Contract with America.

“I’m really happy with it,” Greene said of the plan. “The reason why I'm involved in — going to be actively involved is to make sure that we can push to get the right things in there when it comes time to put the bills to the floor.”

The rollout of the plan marks not just a formal statement of policy priorities aimed at wooing voters, but the culmination of McCarthy’s work to unify an ideologically and stylistically diverse conference around his leadership.

More than a year ago, McCarthy formed several task forces intended to craft policies that members could run on during the midterms. The vast majority of such Republican members were on the panels, including Greene and House Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry (Pa.), among others.

That has helped McCarthy gain buy-in from the right for his vision of a GOP majority. 

McCarthy told reporters that the conference was “very much” unified around the Commitment to America plan, and that he “didn’t hear one negative word” about it.

“You know the conference, right? The different philosophical makeup. You could go from John Katko” — a more moderate New York Republican who is retiring — “to Marjorie Greene” he said, reflecting on the party’s political spectrum.

But some members have stopped short of giving full-throated support for the plan or his Speakership bid, raising questions about whether he would have enough votes should the chamber remain closely split in the new Congress.

“I think it's a pretty good start. We've got a plan. I think we’ve got to put some — a little more meat on the bones. But it gives us a place to land, and all be kind of on the same page as we go after the last month here,” Perry said.

Asked whether she would support McCarthy for Speaker, Greene told reporters that she was not thinking about the leadership election yet.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) expressed approval of the plan for uniting the conference around a midterm message, but hinted at keeping up pressure on House GOP leadership.

“As someone who's a conservative in the Freedom Caucus, part of my job is also accountability for the Republicans to do what we said we would do,” Roy said. “So, as we unite around a message to take our country back, I'll be making sure that there's some specificity and what that means should we win the majority.”

The plan also does not address some of the biggest demands from the right wing, like the potential of impeaching President Biden.

​​”I think the Republican controlled majority if they want to be successful, especially going at 2024, they'll definitely make that a priority,” said Greene, who has introduced multiple impeachment resolutions against Biden.

McCarthy has watched up close the right-wing turmoil that previously plagued GOP House leadership.

“I’ve learned from the other mistakes,” McCarthy, in a March interview with Punchbowl News, said of former GOP Speakers John Boehner (Ohio) and Paul Ryan (Wis.).

Boehner, for his part, was punished by those in the right flank who publicly challenged him, such as former Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), a founding member of the Freedom Caucus which was formed around that time. Meadows was removed from a subcommittee chairmanship after clashing with the Speaker on a procedural vote. 

More procedural moves from Meadows helped propel Boehner to a surprise retirement in 2015, stunning Washington one year after former Virginia Republican Rep. Eric Cantor became the first sitting House majority leader to lose his congressional seat to a political newcomer, and eventual Freedom Caucus member, Dave Brat.

Ryan spent much of 2016 doing a delicate dance around Trump’s candidacy — despite at times getting hammered by the Republican presidential nominee over the course of the election and during his early tenure in the White House before Ryan himself retired. 

The Wisconsin Republican often had to tread between voicing support of his party’s president while disavowing some of Trump’s more inflammatory remarks on immigration and minority groups.

That type of intraparty turmoil seems to have evolved under McCarthy, unlike other previous leaders of the GOP conference.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), another founder of the House Freedom Caucus, challenged McCarthy to lead House Republicans four years ago. But instead of being banished by leadership, he has been elevated. 

Jordan is now ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee and eyeing leading numerous probes as chair of the panel in a majority. He has repeatedly said he is supporting McCarthy for Speaker. 

Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker who was the architect of the 1994 Contract with America that preceded a massive midterm win for the party, had high praise for McCarthy’s handling of the diverse caucus as he walked out of a House GOP meeting unveiling the plan to members.

“He's a much better manager than I was,” Gingrich said. “I was amazed at members who normally find some reason not to be together getting up and saying, ‘We're on the same team.’”

Liz Cheney doesn’t care what the pro-Trump GOP thinks of her

Posted on (Updated by Mike Lillis

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) didn't make any new friends in the GOP with her star turn bashing former President Trump in prime time on Thursday night. It doesn't bother her a bit.

Cheney, a dynastic figure who sits in the House seat once held by her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, used her high perch on the Jan. 6 select committee to accuse Trump of abusing the powers of the presidency to orchestrate nothing short of an attempted coup — explosive charges that have reinforced her status as Public Enemy No. 1 in the eyes of the MAGA faithful. 

The much-watched hearing has further complicated Cheney’s path to reelection in deep-red Wyoming, a Trump stronghold where her primary opponent has the energetic backing of the 45th president, who is actively stumping against the mutinous incumbent. 

But as Cheney's attacks on Trump have grown only louder, it's increasingly clear that she's motivated by something other than securing her future in the lower chamber. Whether that thing is a self-sacrificing desire to save the country's democratic traditions from the former president or an egomaniacal effort to advance her own fame and political powers largely depends on the perspective of her fans and critics.

What is not in question is that Cheney has staked her legacy on her relentless anti-Trump activism — a reputation that will become only more deeply entrenched as the select committee airs its investigative findings in a long series of public hearings that will dominate discussion in Washington through the rest of the month.

“President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack,” Cheney, the vice chairwoman of the select committee, said during the panel’s prime-time hearing Thursday night. 

For the like-minded Trump critics, Cheney is an enormous asset to the investigation, offering the committee not only a good dose of bipartisan legitimacy, but also a seasoned legal mind who knows the ins and outs of the GOP conference and its complicated dealings with the former president. 

“She’s an awesome lawyer, … [and] she was the chair of the House Republican Conference,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a former professor of constitutional law who also sits on the investigative panel. “So she obviously knows the terrain better than anyone else on the committee.”

To Trump’s allies on and off of Capitol Hill, however, Cheney is simply a traitor to the party — a “Pelosi Republican” who’s been all but disowned as GOP leaders try to tap Trump’s popularity in their effort to flip control of the House in November’s midterm elections.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who wants to take the speakership next year, said this week that the responsibility for the Jan. 6 falls on “everybody in the country.”

In one sense, Cheney is an unlikely figure to assume the role of Republican iconoclast. Her family ranks among the most powerful GOP dynasties of the last half century, and her father's unique brand of conservatism — combined with his no-apologies approach to power-policymaking — made him a favorite with the Republican base. 

In a similar vein, Liz Cheney’s staunch conservative positions — including strong attacks on gay marriage during an early campaign — made her a villain in the eyes of Democrats nationwide, but helped propel her quickly into the leadership ranks once she arrived on Capitol Hill in 2017. 

In another sense, however, Cheney is the natural fit to play Trump's foil. 

Trump had devoted much of his successful 2016 campaign bashing the overseas entanglements of the Bush-Cheney administration, most notably the 2003 decision to launch the Iraq War, which was championed by the elder Cheney. After taking the White House, Trump continued those attacks on the old Republican guard that had pushed an aggressively interventionist foreign policy, a group that included both of the Cheneys. 

Although Cheney had opposed Trump’s first impeachment, she was furious with his actions surrounding the attack on the Capitol, where a violent mob of Trump supporters tried to overturn his election defeat. More than 150 police officers were injured in the rampage. 

Cheney was one of just 10 Republicans to support Trump’s impeachment following the riot, and she’s jumped headfirst into her role investigating the tragedy. On Thursday, she used the platform of the televised hearing to warn those Republicans still backing Trump that history won’t treat them kindly. 

“Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain,” she said.

Supporters of the far-reaching investigation note the significance of having a Republican of Cheney’s stature joining the probe.  

“It's important, because like she said, this is not about political parties, or your political views. It's about finding out the truth,” U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell said following the hearing. “And from what the committee laid out today, it seems like there's a lot more that needs to be done.” 

But Cheney’s recalcitrance has come with political costs. 

Last year, after Cheney refused to stop criticizing Trump for his role in the Capitol riot, the GOP conference voted overwhelmingly to boot her out of leadership, replacing her with a Trump loyalist, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who has embraced the former president's lies about a stolen election. 

More recently, the Republican National Committee voted to condemn Cheney — along with the only other Republican on the select committee, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) — for their willingness to join Democrats in the Jan. 6 investigation. That decision, the Republican National Committee charged, “has been destructive to the institution of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Republican Party and our republic.”

In the wake of Thursday’s select committee hearing, the attacks on Cheney from Trump’s allies have grown only more pronounced. During the hearing, Tucker Carlson, the wildly popular Fox News pundit, characterized Cheney as “the Iraq War lady” who’s now “lecturing us about honor and truth.”

Carlson’s guest was Joe Kent, a Trump supporter from Washington state who’s launched a primary challenge against Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.), who also supported Trump’s second impeachment. He, too, had some sharp words for the Wyoming Republican. 

“It's absolutely absurd and insulting,” Kent said of Cheney’s attacks on Trump’s defenders. “She thinks that we can't go back and look at her record that she has been lying to the American people basically for her entire career and profiting off of it, but also she has to bring up this whole, ‘Oh it must be a big Trump thing.’”

Kent said the Capitol rioters were in Washington on Jan. 6 not because of anything Trump did or said, but because “a vast majority” of Americans “did not feel like their voices were heard at the election box, and therefore things started to get a little bit dicey.” 

In the face of such attacks, Cheney has found a new group of allies: Democrats, who have always opposed her conservative policy prescriptions, but are now cheering her on as she takes on a shared adversary in Trump.

“Liz Cheney and I do not agree on almost probably 80 percent of the contentious issues that come up, give or take 10 points,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters this week. “But what she is standing up for is the truth.”

“That's why she was removed as the leader of the Republican Party,” he continued. “Because the Republican Party didn't want to hear the truth."

Trump Inexplicably Endorses GOP Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy Despite Jan. 6 Resignation Plot

Posted on by Deborah Francisco

President Donald Trump endorsed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as “an outstanding Representative” and a “strong and fearless Leader” in a Truth Social post Saturday, despite revelations of McCarthy’s plot to ask Trump to resign after the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.

McCarthy, widely considered to become the Speaker of the House if Republicans win the midterm elections in November, represents California’s 23rd Congressional District.

“In Congress, Kevin is a tireless advocate for the people of Bakersfield and the Central Valley,” Trump said. “He is working incredibly hard to Stop Inflation, Deliver Water Solutions, and hold Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi Accountable for their catastrophic failures and dereliction of duty.”

Trump made this endorsement despite McCarthy’s resignation comments that came to light in April. 

RELATED: Tucker Rips GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy As Democrat ‘Puppet’ After Audio Surfaces of McCarthy Ripping Trump Supporters

McCarthy’s Plot to Remove Trump

McCarthy was caught on a recording with Republican leaders discussing a plan to ask President Trump to resign following the political fallout of the January 6 riot.

In the conversation, Never Trump Republican and January 6th Committee member Liz Cheney asked if McCarthy has discussed resignation with Trump. McCarthy replied that he had not asked the President yet, but he planned to do so.

“Again, the only discussion I would have with him is that, I think this will pass [Congress]” McCarhty said. “And it will be my recommendation [Trump] should resign. I mean, that would be my take. But I don’t think he would take it. But I don’t know.”

The item before Congress appears to be what would become the second impeachment case against Trump.

The comments were first reported by two New York Times reporters, Alex Burns and Jonathan Martin, in their book “This Will Not Pass.” 

Despite the recording, McCarthy vehemently denied making any comments about asking Trump to resign in a statement he posted to Twitter.

“The New York Time’s reporting on me is totally false and wrong,” McCarthy tweeted. “It comes as no surprise that the corporate media is obsessed with doing everything it can to further a liberal agenda. This promotional book tour is no different. If the reporters were interested in truth why would they ask for comment after the book was printed?”

“The past year and a half have proven that our country was better off when President Trump was in the White House…”

Whatever was discussed on the Jan. 10 phone call with Representative Cheney never came to fruition.

RELATED: GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy Caught On Audio Discussing Removing Trump From Office, Blaming Him For Capitol Riot

Trump Likes to Pick Winners

Trump’s base of MAGA voters was clearly miffed by the McCarthy endorsement, especially considering his resignation plot. Following Trump’s endorsement of the Congressman, his supporters booed the mention of McCarthy’s name at a rally over the weekend.

Twitter mentions of McCarthy’s endorsement refer to him as a RINO who lets Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) take advantage of him. 

So, what could explain Trump’s endorsement of McCarthy? Trump’s endorsements range an assortment of candidates.

They are not all the same brand of MAGA Republicans as Trump himself, but Trump likes to pick winners and there is no other Republican running in McCarthy’s race who could beat him. It may be as simple as that.

Trump explained his reasons for backing McCarthy in his own statement on Truth Social, where he listed a number of areas where McCarthy is leading Republicans in Congress. 

“As Leader, Kevin is building a commitment to Americas platform to grow our economy, fight big tech censorship, secure the border, strengthen our military, defend the Second Amendment, improve our health care, restore American energy independence, support our brave veterans, and uphold the Rule of Law and American values.”

He concludes the endorsement saying, “Kevin McCarthy has my Complete and Total Endorsement for California’s 23rd Congressional District!”

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Cheney officially launches reelection bid: ‘This is a fight we must win’

Posted on (Updated by Zach Schonfeld

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) formally launched her reelection bid on Thursday, seeking the Republican nomination for her seat for the fourth time amid rebukes from her own party.

"Some things have to matter," Cheney said in her announcement video. "American freedom, the rule of law, our founding principles, the foundations of our republic matter. What we do in this election in Wyoming matters."

"I'm asking for your vote because this is a fight we must win," she said.

Cheney has drawn the ire of former President Trump and his allies for voting for Trump’s second impeachment and serving as the vice chairwoman of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The committee is seen as illegitimate by a number of her Republican colleagues in the lower chamber.

First elected to the House in 2016, Cheney has faced primary challengers in each of her reelections but has won each previous time with large margins. In this year’s Aug. 16 primary, she will face a challenger, attorney Harriet Hageman, backed by Trump and his allies, who have viewed removing Cheney as a top priority.

Trump is slated to stump for Hageman at a Saturday rally, which will also include video addresses by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who became chairwoman of the House Republican Conference after Cheney was ousted from the role last year. Saturday’s rally will also feature speeches from Hageman, Wyoming Republican Party Chairman Frank Eathorne and two more of Cheney’s House Republican colleagues, Rep. Matt Gaetz (Fla.) and Rep. Lauren Boebert (Colo.).

Cheney made no direct mention of Hageman or her backers in the video posted Thursday, but she called for voters to “reject the lies” and “toxic politics.”

“When I know something is wrong, I will say so,” Cheney said in the announcement. 

“I won't waver or back down. I won't surrender to pressure or intimidation. I know where to draw the line and I know that some things aren't for sale,” she continued.

Cheney has deep ties in Wyoming — her father served as Wyoming’s sole congressman for ten years before becoming the secretary of Defense and later vice president. Cheney highlighted those ties in her announcement video, which included images of her dad and mentions of her family history in Wyoming, which she said dated back to 1852.

“In Wyoming, we know what it means to ride for the brand,” she said. “We live in the greatest nation God has ever created, and our brand is the United States Constitution.”

The Wyoming Republican Party has repeatedly admonished Cheney in recent months.

The state party censured her last February after Cheney voted to impeach Trump over Jan. 6. and later voted in November to no longer recognize her as a member of the GOP.

On a national level, House Republicans last May decided to oust Cheney from her role as conference chair in a closed-door meeting by voice vote. 

Among the intense criticism from her own party, Cheney has continued to criticize her fellow GOP lawmakers. Earlier this month, she accused House Republican leadership of enabling “white nationalism, white supremacy and anti-semitism” after a mass shooting in Buffalo that killed 10 people in a racist attack.

Cheney has boasted strong fundraising throughout her campaign, hauling in $2.94 million in the first quarter of 2022. But her influence will come to the test as she faces primary voters in a state Trump won by more than 40 points in 2020.