The phrase “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” attributed to English playwright William Congreve in The Mourning Bride, applies to Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.). Formerly third in command of the Republican Party in the House and head of the party’s conference, she is soon to be the former Representative from Wyoming.
She saw it coming. Once the No.1 and No. 2 powers-that-be — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) — pulled their support, it was all over but the voting.
The voting took place early Wednesday morning, and Cheney is gone.
But she isn’t leaving quietly. On Tuesday night, to a nearly empty House chamber, she claimed that Donald Trump poses an existential threat to the Republic:
Today, we face a threat America has never seen before. A former president who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol, in an effort to steal the election, has resumed his aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him. He risks inciting further violence.
Millions of Americans have been misled by the former president. They have heard only his words but not the truth as he continues to undermine our democratic process, sowing seeds of doubt about whether democracy [sic] really works at all.
She scarcely paused to catch her breath:
This is not about policy. This is not about partisanship. This is about our duty as Americans.
Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the lie. I will not participate in that. I will not sit back and watch, in silence, while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president’s crusade to undermine our democracy [sic].
Once the voting was complete and her ouster was official, she promised to “do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office.… I plan to lead the fight to do that.”
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Trump, certain of the outcome, declared in advance of Wednesday morning’s vote:
The Republicans in the House of Representatives have a great opportunity today to rid themselves of a poor leader, a major Democrat talking point, a warmonger, and a person with absolutely no personality or heart.
As a representative of the Great State of Wyoming, Liz Cheney is bad for our Country and bad for herself. Almost everyone in the Republican Party, including 90% of Wyoming, looks forward to her ouster — and that includes me!
For the record, Cheney did herself in, first by voting to impeach the president, and then by continuing publicly to declare him guilty not only of inciting the January 6 Capitol riot but of continuing to promote the “lie” that the election was stolen from him. At the time of her vote she declared, “The president of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of the attack. Everything that followed was his doing.”
The limelight is now shifting to her replacement, Representative Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.). The New American pointed out that her voting record, on Constitutional issues, is actually to the left of Cheney’s. This was confirmed by both Heritage Action for America and Club for Growth, scoring her voting record at 48 percent and 35 percent respectively, among the lowest grades for House Republicans.
But pragmatism rules. While strongly criticizing Trump early in his administration, Stefanik reversed course, supporting him during his first impeachment trial. Grateful for her support, Trump famously tweeted that, in Stefanik, “a new Republican star is born.”
She raised millions of dollars in support of more than 100 Republican women running for Congress in 2018. Her fundraising platform, WinRed, places her among the top five Republican fundraisers. The results showed up in 2020 when the party doubled its number of female representatives in the House from 15 to 30.
The House Conference Committee will be voting for Stefanik later this week. By that time, Cheney will be ancient history.
Related article:
Pressure Building to Oust Liz Cheney as House Republican Conference Chair
