WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Republican Party prepared on Friday to censure two of its own — U.S. Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger — over their involvement in Congress’ probe of then-President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Cheney and Kinzinger voted to impeach Trump on a charge of incitement of insurrection arising from last year’s deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot and are the only Republicans taking part in the House of Representatives’ official investigation of the attack.
The resolution rebukes Cheney and Kinzinger for their involvement on the Jan. 6 select committee, Harmeet Dhillon, a Republican National Committee (RNC) member from California, told media outlets.
The measure stopped short of calling for their ouster from the party, as initially proposed, according to media reports.
Trump, who retains a strong grip over his party as Nov. 8 midterm congressional elections draw closer, has been on the warpath against Republicans who have taken a stand against him. Republicans are trying to take control of both the House and the Senate from President Joe Biden’s fellow Democrats in the elections.
Both lawmakers issued statements in anticipation of Friday’s vote.
“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,” Cheney said, referring to the hundreds of Trump supporters accused of various crimes in the attack.
Four people died on Jan. 6, and a Capitol Police officer died the next day. About 140 police officers were injured, and four later died by suicide.
Cheney said she does not recognize those in her party who “abandoned the Constitution to embrace Donald Trump, who has endorsed her challenger in the Wyoming Republican primary.
Kinzinger, who is not seeking re-election to a two-year term, said he has been a conservative Republican since before Trump entered politics. He vowed to continue “working to fight the political matrix that’s led us to this point.”
Not all Republicans are lining up against the two.
Republican Senator Mitt Romney praised Cheney and Kinzinger as honorable in a Twitter post on Friday. “Shame falls on a party that would censure persons of conscience, who seek truth in the face of vitriol,” he wrote.
At least 71 Republican members of Congress transferred money https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/republican-us-lawmakers-funnel-money-colleagues-who-crossed-trump-2022-02-01 last year to the campaigns of congressional Republicans, including Cheney’s, that supported booting Trump from office, a Reuters analysis found.
Republican Senator Bill Cassidy came to their defense in a Twitter post late on Thursday: “The RNC is censuring Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger because they are trying to find out what happened on January 6th – HUH?”
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
