Donald Trump is no longer in the White House, but the former U.S. president’s influence is still keenly felt on Capitol Hill, where the Jan. 6 rioting by his supporters has created deep divisions within the Republican party.
House Republicans met Wednesday to decide the futures of two members of their caucus on opposite sides of the debate over Trump: Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the third-ranking Republican leader in the House, and freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has expressed support for far-right conspiracy views including those of QAnon.
At issue were whether to strip the pro-Trump Greene of her committee assignments or remove Cheney from the Republican leadership team for her vote to impeach Trump. Those decisions will force a reckoning on whether Republicans remain loyal to Trump and his supporters or move away from his influence.
In a 145-61 vote, House Republicans opted to keep Cheney in her role.
“It was a very resounding acknowledgment that we need to go forward together and that we need to go forward in a way that helps us beat back the really dangerous and negative Democrat policies,” Cheney said after the vote.
Ten House Republicans voted with Democrats on Jan. 13 to impeach Trump for inciting the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last month. Cheney — the only woman on her party's leadership team — was the highest-ranking Republican to vote for impeachment. She released a statement so strongly condemning Trump that it was cited by Democratic House impeachment managers in their trial brief.
“None of this would have happened without the President,” Cheney wrote in a Jan. 12 statement assigning blame for the riot at the Capitol that left five people dead, including a police officer, and temporarily stopped the counting of Electoral College votes that showed Democrat Joe Biden the winner of the November election.
“The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not. There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution,” she said.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has been meeting privately with Greene to discuss Democrats’ outrage following the revelation of her social media posts advancing numerous conspiracy theories about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, mass school shootings, as well as her liking a Facebook post calling for the execution of Democratic leaders including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California.
Greene has said her social media posts are managed by several people and that she does not see all of them. In a tweet Wednesday, Greene responded to these allegations, writing that Democrats “are only set out to destroy Republicans, your jobs, our economy, your children’s education and lives, steal our freedoms, and erase God’s creation.” Earlier this week, Greene said she had spoken with Trump and had his continuing support.
House Democrats, who control the chamber, have taken the unusual step of filing a resolution that would strip Greene of her committee assignments, denying her one of the most important responsibilities a lawmaker can fulfill.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland told reporters Wednesday the action was necessary because “she has placed many members in fear for their welfare and she has attacked and made incendiary remarks prior to but also during her term as a member of Congress with respect to the safety and welfare of the Speaker of the House.”
Hoyer added that Democrats “believe she also gave aid and comfort to those who led an insurrection.”
The full House could vote as soon as Thursday on removing Greene from those assignments. “I spoke to Leader McCarthy this morning and it is clear there is no alternative to holding a Floor vote on the resolution to remove Rep. Greene from her committee assignments,” Hoyer said in an earlier statement.
In a debate clearing the resolution for a floor vote, Republican Rep. Tom Cole called Greene’s comments “deeply offensive” and “absolutely repugnant” but argued the matter would be better handled as an ethics matter.
The push by the Democrats to punish Greene has put McCarthy in a tough position, having to decide whether to stand by Greene, whom Trump has praised as a “rising star” in the party, or punish her in response to demands from Democrats and some in his own party.
He said late Wednesday that the day’s meetings produced unity among Republican members, and that Greene rejected her previous statements.
“We denounce anything that we've seen that was said in that past from anything with QAnon has no place in our party, and Marjorie Greene actually said that inside our conference today,” McCarthy said.
The controversies over Greene and Cheney come as the Senate is poised to begin an impeachment trial of Trump for inciting the insurrection at the Capitol. Trump is the only president in U.S. history to be impeached twice and will be the first to undergo an impeachment trial after leaving office.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell took the unusual step of commenting on House matters earlier this week, not naming Greene in a statement but saying “loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country.”
Describing the Capitol riot last month, McConnell said, “The mob had been fed lies by the president and other powerful people.” A conviction of Trump in the Senate trial is unlikely since 17 Republicans in the chamber would need to vote along with all 50 Democrats to reach the two-thirds majority needed. Last week, 45 of the 50 Senate Republicans voted in favor of a resolution calling the impeachment trial of a former president unconstitutional.
