RNC Set to Debate Booting Cheney, Kinzinger From House GOP Caucus

The Republican National Committee will debate a measure seeking to kick anti-Trump Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois out of the House Republican Caucus during the RNC’s annual meeting this week in Salt Lake City, Utah.

According to the Washington Post, via the Daily Mail, the Republican National Committee, which is meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, from Wednesday through Friday, will consider a proposal to formally expel the two lawmakers from the House GOP Conference for attempting to “destroy President Trump.

The push, which is being led by former Trump adviser David Bossie, comes at the RNC’s annual meeting. Cheney and Kinzinger are the only two Republicans on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s hand-picked Jan. 6 Committee investigating the riot at the U.S. Capitol Building, which both GOP lawmakers have blamed on Trump.

The Daily Mail adds:

His co-sponsor is Wyoming state RNC Chair Frank Eathorne, another Trump ally who attended the protest outside the Capitol on January 6 last year. The Wyoming GOP voted to un-recognize Cheney in 2021 over her efforts to work with Democrats on the Capitol riot committee.

The reported resolution is the highest-profile spat yet in the growing divide between Trump allies within the GOP and those who believe he should be held accountable for the January 6 Capitol riot and pushing false 2020 election conspiracy theories.

It’s extremely rare for federal elected officials to be ejected from their own party.  

Cheney has already been censored by several county-level Republican Party organizations. And Kinzinger has opted not to run for reelection in November after Illinois Democrats redrew his district following the 2020 Census in a way that makes it nearly impossible for him to win.

Cheney’s office responded to a request for comment from the Daily Mail by pointing to her remarks to the Post in the paper’s earlier report.

“The leaders of the Republican Party have made themselves willing hostages to a man who admits he tried to ‘overturn’ a presidential election and suggests he would pardon Jan. 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy,” the Wyoming legislator said.

“I’m a constitutional conservative and I do not recognize those in my party who have abandoned the Constitution to embrace Donald Trump. History will be their judge. I will never stop fighting for our constitutional republic. No matter what,” she added.

Kinzinger could not immediately be reached for comment, the Daily Mail reported.