Under Pressure to Rebuke Their Own, G.O.P.
Leaders Face a Critical Test
The fates of Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene
and Liz Cheney have become a proxy battle for the soul of the party, prompting
a clash among top Republicans.
Catie
Edmondson
By Catie
Edmondson
Feb. 2,
2021
WASHINGTON
— Republicans fighting over their party’s future face a turning point on
Wednesday as House leaders confront dueling calls to punish two members: one
for spreading conspiracy theories and endorsing political violence, and the
other for voting to impeach former President Donald J. Trump.
Trump
loyalists want to strip Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the No. 3
Republican, of her leadership post as payback for her vote to impeach. Trump
critics want to strip Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia of her
committee assignments for endorsing false claims, bigoted language and violent
behavior, including calling for the execution of top Democrats.
The fates
of the two lawmakers, which are expected to be discussed at a private meeting
among Republicans on Wednesday, are now a proxy battle for the party’s future,
prompting a clash among its top leadership.
On one side
is Mr. Trump, who has praised Ms. Greene, and a majority of House Republicans
who backed the former president after the Capitol riot on Jan. 6. On the other
are a growing number of Republican senators, including Mitch McConnell of
Kentucky, the minority leader, who have rallied behind Ms. Cheney.
Caught in
the middle is Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House Republican
leader, who is under pressure from both sides and who met with Mr. Trump in
Florida last weekend. At the same time, Mr. McConnell, who rarely wades into
party disputes in public, inserted himself into the fray by issuing two
statements on Monday night. One praised Ms. Cheney, and the other slammed Ms.
Greene, without naming her, for “loony lies” that he called a “cancer” on his
party.
Mr.
McConnell’s statements intensified the pressure on Mr. McCarthy and underscored
the existential crisis in the party. At the very least, Mr. McConnell’s decision
to take a public stance is the latest evidence that he is convinced that Mr.
Trump and his brand of politics could destroy the Republican Party. It is a
concern borne in large part out of cold political calculation: Mr. McConnell
lost his Senate majority in January after independent and suburban voters in
two runoff races in Georgia spurned what the Republican Party had become under
Mr. Trump.
But there
is a chasm between Mr. McConnell’s political imperatives and those of Mr.
McCarthy, who must win the House in races where loyalty to Mr. Trump has become
a prerequisite. In a nod to that reality, he made the trip to Palm Beach, Fla.,
and has remained silent about Ms. Greene.
Senator
John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Republican, backed Mr. McConnell on
Tuesday, telling CNN that House Republicans would have to “decide who they want
to be.”
“Do they
want to be the party of limited government and fiscal responsibility, free
markets, peace through strength and pro life, or do they want to be the party
of conspiracy theories and QAnon?” said Mr. Thune, who served in the House for
six years. “I think that is the decision they’ve got to face.”
Senate
Republicans are also facing that choice as they look to Mr. Trump’s impeachment
trial and the decision of whether to convict him on a bipartisan charge of
incitement of insurrection. All but five of them, including Mr. McConnell,
voted last week to dismiss the trial as unconstitutional, a reflection of how
reluctant they still are to cross the former president.
Still, a
phalanx of Republican senators followed Mr. McConnell’s lead on Tuesday,
inserting themselves into the House turmoil to urge leaders there to reject Ms.
Greene.
“I think we
should have nothing to do with Marjorie Taylor Greene and think we should
repudiate the things she said and move away from her,” Senator Mitt Romney of
Utah said. “I think our long history as a party has shown that it’s important
for us to separate ourselves from the people that are in the wacky weeds, and
if we don’t, then our opposition tries to brand us with their image and their
point of view.”
Senator
Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, told CBS that he agreed with Mr.
McConnell “entirely,” saying, “We have to move beyond what someone thinks may
be true because it is on the internet.”
Senator
Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, took to Twitter to express his
support for Ms. Cheney, calling her “one of the strongest and most valuable
conservative voices in the Republican Party.” But Mr. Graham, who was one of
Mr. Trump’s most loyal allies on Capitol Hill, later told reporters that he was
not ready to repudiate Ms. Greene, saying he needed to hear more about whether
the reports about her comments were “accurate” and whether she still believed
what she said.
House
Republican leaders have been mum in recent weeks as they have mulled how to
deal with Ms. Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, and
Ms. Greene, who was elected to her first term in November. Mr. Trump is still
popular with a majority of their members, who voted to support his bid to
overturn his election defeat. Even as some of them privately harbor concerns
about his influence on the party, Republicans are keenly aware that the
smoothest path to victory in many House districts is by appealing to base
voters who revere him.
Underscoring
the balancing act, Representative Andy Biggs, Republican of Arizona and the
chairman of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, issued a warning on Tuesday in
response to a plan by House Democrats to strip Ms. Greene of her committee
assignments.
“The
Democrats’ moves to strip Congresswoman Greene of her committee assignments for
thoughts and opinions she shared as a private citizen before coming to the U.S.
House is unprecedented and unconstitutional,” Mr. Biggs said. “All
self-righteous Republicans, beware: If this can happen to Congresswoman
Marjorie Taylor Greene, it can happen to any one of us.”
Mr.
McCarthy has yet to personally comment on the extensive stream of racist and
conspiracy-laden social media posts made by Ms. Greene before she came to
Congress. A spokesman said last week that posts in which she endorsed killing
Democratic lawmakers were “deeply disturbing” and that the leader planned to
address them in a conversation with Ms. Greene this week.
Mr.
McCarthy has taken a marginally less reluctant tone on calls for Ms. Cheney to
resign from leadership, telling reporters that he supported her but felt it
would be appropriate for the conference to discuss the manner in which she
announced her support for impeachment.
“Leader
McCarthy is in a very tough position, an unenviable position,” said Carlos
Curbelo, a Republican former congressman from Florida. “But it’s pretty obvious
that he’s trying to find a balance between the long-term interests of the party
and his own short-term political interests and those of the members who are
serving today.”
Mr. Curbelo
said that if there were a secret ballot vote to expel Ms. Greene from the
conference, she would overwhelmingly lose; but if the vote were public,
lawmakers would vote for her to remain in the conference.
“Members
know what doing the right thing means, but ultimately a lot of them fear Donald
Trump and his base, and that’s why they’re stuck in this vicious cycle,” Mr.
Curbelo said. “Members will say, ‘A lot of the voters in my district believe
these conspiracy theories’ — and a lot of the reason they do is because these
members won’t level with them.”
Ms. Greene
announced over the weekend that she had spoken with Mr. Trump and received his
support, in what amounted to a veiled threat to Republicans who might be
considering taking action against her. To drive home her point, she said on
Monday that she planned to meet with the former president at Mar-a-Lago, his
private club in Florida, “soon.” Mr. McCarthy also traveled there last week in
an effort to mend a rift with Mr. Trump that was caused by the leader’s
assertion that the former president bore some responsibility for the attack on
the Capitol.
Mr.
McConnell, in contrast, has repeatedly signaled to his party that he is ready
to cut Mr. Trump loose, making clear to associates after the Capitol attack
that he viewed the former president’s actions around the riot as impeachable
and blaming him in a speech from the Senate floor for provoking the mob.
“He’s
sending up an urgent warning that we can’t be a national governing party, we
can’t be a majority party, we can’t even be competitive if we’re going to be
the party of Jewish space lasers, and that 9/11 didn’t happen and all the
conspiracy theories” that Ms. Greene has endorsed, Scott Jennings, a former top
aide to Mr. McConnell, said on CNN.
Mr.
Jennings said that warning extended to attempts to force Ms. Cheney out of her
leadership role.
“If what
comes out of this entire Jan. 6 ordeal is that Liz Cheney is the only person
who winds up punished,” he said, “it would be an absolute travesty.”
Luke
Broadwater contributed reporting.
Catie
Edmondson is a reporter in the Washington bureau, covering Congress. @CatieEdmondson
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