Missouri, Kansas Republicans back Rep. Liz Cheney’s ouster as Trump keeps grip on GOP

Republicans from Missouri and Kansas voted to oust Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney from House GOP leadership Wednesday morning, a dramatic illustration of President Donald Trump’s continuing hold on the party.

Cheney’s removal as chair of the House Republican conference follows her forceful rejection of Trump’s persistent conspiracy-mongering about the 2020 election and her strong warnings to the party about the dangers of indulging it after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

Republicans say Cheney’s insistence on challenging Trump’s election denialism has taken focus away from the party’s policy priorities.

“The fact that you’re asking this question shows how big of a distraction it is,” Missouri Republican Rep. Jason Smith told The Star Monday. “Members of House leadership should not be the distraction.”

Smith is one of eight House Republicans from Kansas and Missouri who voted to block Pennsylvania and Arizona’s electors in January. The only exception was Missouri Republican Rep. Ann Wagner, a St. Louis area lawmaker who chairs the House Suburban Caucus.

When asked directly in the interview, Smith would not explicitly affirm the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s election.

“Joe Biden’s president of the United States, but one thing about it is millions of Americans will always have a cloud over his election,” he said.

Kansas Republican Rep. Jake LaTurner supported Cheney’s removal as chair, but he said there’s no question that Biden is legitimately elected.

“Of course, he is. That’s not even a question. And that’s not what this is about,” said LaTurner, who objected to Arizona’s 11 electors in January but disputed that vote was intended to overturn the election.

LaTurner, a freshman who represents Lawrence and Topeka, said Cheney was undermining Republican efforts to take back the House in 2022.

“We’ve got to move beyond talking about what’s happening within the conference. We ought to be talking about what’s happening in the country right now. This is all a huge distraction,” LaTurner said. “People in Kansas care about the rising energy prices. They care about tax proposals. They care about opening up this country, getting back to normal.”

Cheney was ousted by voice vote in a closed-door Republican conference meeting. But given the intense interest, it’s unlikely that that members’ votes will remain private.

It’s unlikely that any GOP House members from the Kansas City region stuck with Cheney after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, gave the green light for removal with a Monday letter that said “it’s clear we need to make a change.”

Kansas Republican Rep. Ron Estes affirmed his support for Cheney’s removal with a statement that called for Republicans to refocus on blocking Biden’s agenda and prevent progressive wish list items, such as the Green New Deal and the proposed expansion of the Supreme Court.

“Our GOP conference needs to return to working as a team to combat these unprecedented proposals of the far left and advance solutions that will defeat the virus, reopen our economy and get Americans back to work and school,” Estes said.

He did not mention Trump.

Months after Biden moved into the White House, the former president continues to release public statements disputing without evidence the outcome of the 2020 election.

Smith, a potential candidate for Missouri’s open Senate seat, went to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida last month for a campaign fundraiser.

The following week he traveled to the southern border to advocate for resumption of Trump’s signature initiative, construction of a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Smith contends that Biden’s executive order to pause construction was illegal.

“It is clearly well known across the world that if you want de facto residency in the United States you can come from the southern border,” said Smith, whose trip spanned multiple facilities between San Diego and Yuma, Arizona.

In addition to the border, Smith said Republicans should be focused on preventing passage of Biden’s proposal to roll back Trump-era tax cuts. He argued changing the leadership team would enable that to happen.

Missouri Republican Rep. Vicky Hartzler, another potential Senate candidate, said in a statement that she has enjoyed working with Cheney but confirmed her support for removing the Wyoming Republican from leadership.

“But unfortunately, her rhetoric has divided our party at a time when we must come together,” said Hartzler, who resides in Cass County. “House Republicans need to unite in our efforts to hold the Biden Administration accountable, and it starts from the top down.”

Hartzler called federal spending Biden out of control and said Republicans “need to focus on stopping these dangerous and damaging policies, instead of each other.”

The daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and the No. 3 Republican in the House, Cheney was one of just 10 Republicans to support Trump’s impeachment for incitement insurrection during his final week in office.

It’s made her a target for Trump’s fury.

She survived a previous challenge to her position in leadership in February. But just three months later it was a foregone conclusion that she’d be Wednesday in favor of Rep. Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican with Trump’s blessing.

In a Washington Post guest column last week, Cheney exhorted GOP colleagues to cut ties with Trump and support the formation of a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack.

She warned that continuing to indulge “Trump’s crusade to delegitimize and undo the legal outcome of the 2020 election” would do long-term damage to the nation and the institution of democracy worldwide.

“While embracing or ignoring Trump’s statements might seem attractive to some for fundraising and political purposes, that approach will do profound long-term damage to our party and our country. Trump has never expressed remorse or regret for the attack of Jan. 6 and now suggests that our elections, and our legal and constitutional system, cannot be trusted to do the will of the people,” Cheney wrote.

“This is immensely harmful, especially as we now compete on the world stage against Communist China and its claims that democracy is a failed system.”

In addition to her criticism of Trump, Cheney has said that Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley and Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz should be disqualified from consideration for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination for leading the move to overturn the Electoral College results.

Hawley, who has often charged critics with trying to “cancel” him in the wake of Jan. 6, insisted to reporters Monday that Cheney’s ouster would not amount to cancellation.

“I don’t think she’s being canceled in the sense that she’s being silenced. It’s a decision for the House caucus who represents them in leadership,” said Hawley, who accused The Washington Post of trying to cancel and silence him during a livestreamed interview last week.