A group of House Republicans formally moved to expel Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., from the GOP conference over their participation in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s partisan Jan. 6th commission.
A resolution, introduced by Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., would immediately remove any person who sits on a committee that they were not appointed to by the Republican leader or the House Republican steering committee.
Neither Cheney nor Kinzinger were appointed to Pelosi’s commission by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
Instead, they were appointed directly by Pelosi in spite of Republican leadership’s wishes.
“The reality is, they’re now basically working with and for the Democrats, and so it’d be awkward for them to be sitting in our committee while we talk about policy, put, you know, strategy and how to stop bad policy from the Democrats and advance good policy from us. It’d be really awkward,” Biggs told the Washington Examiner.
However, the resolution has not received much support outside a small group of pro-Trump House Republicans, including Reps. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Matt Rosendale, R-Mont.
Gaetz slammed his colleagues for not being willing to take a stand against Cheney and Kinzinger during Tuesday’s conference meeting.
“The microphones at conference always seem to work when our leadership is asking people to pledge money. And when that portion of the meeting concludes, there’s just a real series of technical difficulties that seem to always arise,” he said.
A source told the New York Post that GOP leadership is also opposed to Biggs’s resolution because they believe it would be too divisive.
Rosendale, however, argued it is necessary: “You can’t spend halftime in the opponent’s locker room and expect the team to welcome you back for the rest of the game,” he said in a statement. “I hope the GOP Conference will seriously consider this.”
