Jeff Flake, the former NeverTrump Republican senator from Arizona, claimed the only reason Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., was ousted from her leadership position as the House GOP caucus chair this week was because she was honest.
In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Flake said Cheney’s removal proves “there is no greater offense than honesty” in the Republican Party, referencing Cheney’s insistence that the 2020 presidential election was not stolen from former president Donald Trump.
“She will lose her position because she is refusing to play her assigned role in propagating the ‘big lie’ that the 2020 election was stolen,” Flake wrote.
“Cheney is more dedicated to the long-term health of our constitutional system than she is to assuaging the former president’s shattered ego,” he continued, “and for her integrity she may well pay with her career.”
House Republicans who initiated the effort to remove Cheney from leadership said they did so not because Cheney was criticizing Trump, but because she was dividing the party.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., argued such division would only hurt the GOP moving forward as it looks to take back the House in 2022.
“If we are to succeed in stopping the radical Democratic agenda from destroying our country, these internal conflicts need to be resolved so as to not detract from the efforts of our collective team,” McCarthy said on Monday to his Republican colleagues. “Having heard from so many of you in recent days, it’s clear that we need to make a change.”
The closed-door meeting to remove Cheney took less than 20 minutes and only required a voice vote, according to insiders.
After the vote, Cheney hinted that she will become even more vocally opposed to Trump now that she has been forced out of her position.
“I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again never gets anywhere near the Oval Office,” she said on Wednesday. “We have seen the danger that he continues to provoke with his language. We have seen his lack of commitment and dedication to the Constitution. And I think it’s very important that we make sure whomever we elect is somebody that will be faithful to the Constitution.”
