The House GOP kept Cheney but is still plenty splintered on Trump - Washington Examiner (original) (raw)

The Trump-GOP story is moving into a new phase that will test the durability of House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy’s recent pronouncement that his caucus is now “more united.”

There was something purgatorial about the period between the second Trump impeachment vote and the House Republican conference meeting on Wednesday during which members voted to keep Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming in her role as conference chairwoman following her vote in favor of impeachment. Republicans would be determining their course in dealing with Cheney.

To be sure, it was a reorienting event and the relief, expressed by the likes of Wall Street Journal columnists Peggy Noonan and Kim Strassel following the conference vote, was justifiable enough. The caucus could have canned her, but it didn’t.

Even still, based on all we know about the remaining pro-Trump fervor inside the House GOP, it’s difficult to imagine the “big tent” about which McCarthy spoke after the conference meeting continuing to accommodate everyone, especially considering what Cheney told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.

“Somebody who has provoked an attack on the United States Capitol to prevent the counting of electoral votes,” Cheney said, “which resulted in five people dying, who refused to stand up immediately when he was asked and stop the violence, that — that is a person who does not have a role as a leader of our party going forward.” She added that “we should not be embracing the former president.”

Having visited Trump at his Florida residence in late January, McCarthy said in a statement afterward, “Today, President Trump committed to helping elect Republicans in the House and Senate in 2022.” That sounds a lot like embracing the former president.

The House GOP accepted Cheney’s impeachment vote, and unless a secret recording gets leaked, the public will be left to wonder exactly how she, McCarthy, and whichever other advocates of hers persuaded the doubtful members to do it. Presumably, members didn’t agree that it was sensible for her and McCarthy to take different positions on Trump and to renew them in media interviews.

Toward the ends of keeping a caucus together and emerging from the midterm elections stronger, I would think the current arrangement is untenable. The Republicans will have a hard time making it through 2022 if their House leader thinks that Trump helps them, while the third-ranking House Republican thinks her colleagues should not be embracing him.