Republican Party officials on Friday voted to censure members of their own party over the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 riots that breached the U.S. Capitol building.
The Republican National Committee voted to condemn Wyoming U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney and Illinois U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger for serving on the Jan. 6th Select Committee in the House. GOP officials took a voice vote to approve the censure at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting in Salt Lake City.
On Thursday, members of an RNC subcommittee decided to advance the censure resolution against the pair instead of calling for their expulsion from the party.
The censure resolution accuses Kinzinger and Cheney of “participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse” — a description of the attack on the Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.
It also calls on the party to no longer support Cheney and Kinzinger as Republicans.
Cheney and Kinzinger are the only two Republicans on the House committee investigating what happened on Jan. 6, 2021 at the Capitol. Trump and other GOP members were incensed when Kinzinger and Cheney agreed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s invitation to join the Democratic-led committee, giving the panel a veneer of bipartisan credibility.
The move to withhold support for Cheney could benefit her primary opponent, Harriet Hageman, who has been endorsed by Trump. Wyoming’s primary is in August.
Cheney said in a tweet Thursday night that she didn’t recognize those she felt had abandoned the U.S. Constitution in service of Trump.
“The leaders of the Republican Party have made themselves willing hostages to a man who admits he tried to ‘overturn’ a presidential election and suggests he would pardon Jan. 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy,” she said.
Kinzinger has decided not to even run for reelection.
“Republicans have to stand together and what has happened with the Jan. 6 investigation is that it has become a one-sided witch hunt, where they’re only going after Republicans,” Steve Stepanek, the New Hampshire GOP chair and one of the several dozen co-sponsors of the resolution, told Fox News. “We’re sending a message that we as a party are not going to support these individuals and we feel they should be censured.”
Stepanek also told the outlet that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy didn’t appoint Cheney and Kinzinger to the committee.
“It’s up to Kevin McCarthy and House Republicans to decide if they want to take further steps,” he said.
Rules Change Against Commission on Presidential Debates
RNC members also voted in favor of a rule change that would prohibit their candidates from participating in debates organized by the Commission on Presidential Debates. The institution has been a staple of presidential elections for three decades, but Republicans have claimed the format as biased against them.
“Restoring faith in our elections means making sure our candidate can compete on a level playing field,” RNC chair Ronna McDaniel said in a speech on Friday.
“We are not walking away from debates, we are walking away from the Commission on Presidential Debates because it’s a biased monopoly that does not serve the best interests of the American people,” she added.
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