Republicans censured two lawmakers yesterday in a significant escalation of the drive to oust dissidents seen as disloyal to former US president Donald Trump.
Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the lone Republicans on the House committee investigating Trump’s role in last year’s US Capitol assault, are regarded as adversaries of the former president, who retains his iron grip on the party despite losing the 2020 election.
Both voted to impeach Trump on a charge of incitement of insurrection after last year’s deadly January 6 Capitol riot.
The party’s 168 national committee members, gathered for their winter meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, approved a formal censure accusing the pair of behaviour that is “destructive to the US House of Representatives, the Republican Party and our republic”.
Hardline Trump loyalists have been pushing for months for the two to be expelled, particularly as the investigation into the January 6, 2021 insurrection has closed in on the former president’s inner circle.
“Shame falls on a party that would censure persons of conscience, who seek truth in the face of vitriol,” said erstwhile party grandee and 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney, whose niece Ronna McDaniel runs the Republican National Committee (RNC).
“Honour attaches to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for seeking truth even when doing so comes at great personal cost,” he added.
Republican Senator Bill Cassidy came to their defence late on Thursday, writing on Twitter: “The RNC is censuring Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger because they are trying to find out what happened on January 6th – HUH?”
Democratic National Committee Rapid Response Director Ammar Moussa accused Republicans of having “no low they will not go to, to protect Donald Trump and his chaos”.
“They have no vision, no agenda, and are completely subservient to Trump, even if it means undermining our democracy and inciting further violence,” he said.
The censure nevertheless passed by an overwhelming voice vote without any discussion, video of the meeting captured by The Hill newspaper showed, as the party officially declared the Capitol assault and events that led to it “legitimate political discourse”.
The resolution was not read out, and the whole item of business took about a minute.
It said their actions have damaged Republican efforts to win back majorities in Congress.
The measure said the RNC will “immediately cease any and all support of them” as party members, but stops short of calling for their ouster from the party, as initially proposed.
With Kinzinger retiring from Congress after the November midterm elections, and Cheney in danger of losing her Wyoming seat, the party leadership is said to be keen to put the issue behind them.
Republicans are hoping instead to focus on hitting President Joe Biden on his stalled domestic agenda, spiralling inflation and the stubborn pandemic ahead of the midterms.
Cheney responded to news of the censure motion by doubling down on her Trump criticism.
“The leaders of the Republican Party have made themselves willing hostages to a man who admits that he tried to overturn a presidential election and suggests he would pardon January 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy,” she said in a statement on Thursday.
“I’m a constitutional conservative and I do not recognise those in my party who have abandoned the Constitution to embrace Donald Trump. History will be their judge,” Cheney added. “I will never stop fighting for our constitutional republic. No matter what.”