In trying to curtail Cheney’s ascent as a leader within the party, her foes made her a national leader
“We cannot let the former President drag us backward and make us complicit in his efforts to unravel our democracy. Down that path lies our destruction, and potentially the destruction of our country,” she told them.
She was booed by some of her colleagues, according to a source in the room.
What Cheney did was nothing short of definitional — both in terms of history and of the Republican Party, or what’s left of it. She drew a neon line in the sand, calling for the truth about the 2020 election and saying that a party that calls itself conservative and doesn’t accept that truth is, well, not legitimate. In fact, it’s a fraud.
Leadership fights are almost always parochial. And House Republicans at first saw it that way. One told me, “We’re just tired of it. Sometimes your friends are too brave for their own good. You don’t have to prove you’re right every time.”
But in trying to curtail Cheney’s ascent as a leader within the party, they handed her a bigger megaphone. She’s not just a House GOP someone, she’s now a national leader — with national exposure. And so Cheney is now a national story.
“Propaganda and lies are being used to unleash the national security state against law-abiding US citizens,” Gosar said.
Trump would love it. Maybe he’ll send an email out about it.
Oh, well. McCarthy was happy to talk infrastructure and about his commitment not to repeal the 2017 Trump tax bill. In fact, he seemed extra happy to be back on message terra firma.
The purge of Cheney may be over, but the story isn’t. Her words, succinct and direct, will be a big part of the political echo chamber to come.
“I will do everything I can to ensure that the former President never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office,” she said in front of the TV cameras. “You can see the danger that he continues to provoke with his language. We have seen his lack of commitment and dedication to the Constitution.”
It’s going to be a political civil war, sure. But it’s going to be fought, and rightly so, with the fervor of a religious crusade. In those battles, those who worship false idols tend to lose.