Republican National Committee condemns Cheney and Kinzinger for serving on House committee investigating Jan. 6 attack on Capitol

SALT LAKE CITY - In an extraordinary rebuke, the Republican National Committee on Friday voted Friday to condemn Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., the two Republican members of a House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.

The censure resolution passed overwhelmingly on a voice vote with no debate or discussion. It said the behavior of Cheney and Kinzinger “has been destructive to the institution of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Republican Party and our republic.” The two lawmakers also voted to impeach former president Donald Trump after last year’s deadly insurrection.

In addition to Friday’s formal censure at the party’s winter meeting in Salt Lake City, the RNC also made plans to fund a primary challenge against Cheney in Wyoming after Republican leaders passed a special rule to recognize her challenger as the party’s presumptive nominee.

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel defended the move Thursday in an interview with The Washington Post.

“We’ve had two members engage in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse,” she said. “This has gone beyond their original intent. They are not sticking up for hard-working Republicans.”

A Cheney representative decried the party’s position, reiterating a her statement she made last week that said Republicans were “hostage” to former president Donald Trump.

In a party that continues to embrace Trump, Cheney and Kinzinger have stood out as among the few congressional Republicans to criticize the former president’s actions. Joining them on Friday was Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who criticized the actions of the RNC in a tweet.

“Shame falls on a party that would censure persons of conscience, who seek truth in the face of vitriol,” Romney said. “Honor attaches to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for seeking truth even when doing so comes at great personal cost.”

McDaniel is Romney’s niece. She had used her maiden name for years in Michigan, where she was state party chair, but dropped “Romney” from most official party communications upon becoming RNC chairwoman in 2017, following a request from Trump.

In 2020, Romney was the sole Senate Republican to vote to convict Trump of abuse of power; he also blasted Trump’s efforts to pressure Republicans to overturn the 2020 presidential election as among the most “undemocratic” actions ever taken by a sitting U.S. president.

Another Trump critic in the GOP, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, said in a tweet: “The GOP I believe in is the party of freedom and truth. It’s a sad day for my party - and the country - when you’re punished just for expressing your beliefs, standing on principle, and refusing to tell blatant lies.”

As the party met in Salt Lake City this week, the leaders of the Wyoming GOP privately signed a special letter that would allow the national party to financially support Harriet Hageman, Cheney’s primary challenger. The letter officially recognizes Hageman as the presumptive nominee for the seat.

In response to the party passing the “Rule 11″ resolution that could fund Cheney’s challenger, a spokesman for Cheney said: “Wyoming Party Chairman Frank Eathorne and the Republican National Committee are trying to assert their will and take away the voice of the people of Wyoming before a single vote has even been cast.”

McDaniel worked behind the scenes with David Bossie, a top Trump ally, to author and push the resolution that attacked Cheney’s work on the committee, called her a “destructive” force in the GOP and vowed the party would no longer support her.

Bossie called it a “one-two punch” against Cheney that signaled a message from the GOP at the state and national levels.

The draft resolution passed unanimously in the GOP’s resolutions committee meeting on Thursday afternoon, and McDaniel and Bossie spoke privately in favor of it. “Once it passed, there was applause in the room,” McDaniel said of the resolutions committee. The RNC chairwoman said she expected the resolution to pass “overwhelmingly” on Friday when the 168 members of the committee consider it. “This isn’t a top-down situation. The members have shown tremendous support for this,” McDaniel said.

Cheney faces a difficult primary in Wyoming, where Trump has backed her primary opponent and former aides of his are working for her rival. Cheney, daughter of former vice president Richard B. Cheney, has largely voted with Republicans and has long held conservative views but has been vociferous and relentless in her attacks on Trump since Jan. 6.

“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. I’m a constitutional conservative and I do not recognize those in my party who have abandoned the Constitution to embrace Donald Trump. History will be their judge. I will never stop fighting for our constitutional republic. No matter what,” Cheney said.

Cheney has said before she will do whatever it takes to keep Trump out of the Oval Office again, and she has taken a particularly aggressive role on the committee, according to people involved, who praise her intellect and tenacity.

Some inside the party said the resolution was a waste of time when the party should be focusing on President Joe Biden’s agenda and sagging popularity. “Why are we being dragged into a primary in Wyoming?” said Bill Palatucci, a national committeeman from New Jersey. Two other members said they wished they didn’t have to vote on the resolution on Friday but would vote in favor of it.

Several members said their colleagues were uninterested in reckoning with Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack, and his false rhetoric that the election was stolen. “They want to put their head in the sand,” one committee member said.

Michael Steele, the former Republican Party chairman, said they were censuring Cheney for “protecting the country from a maniac.”

“This is not about her conservative bona fides. This is clearly not about her commitment to public service. It’s all about, unlike the other members, she won’t kiss Donald Trump’s a--,” Steele said. “It sets an ugly precedent where the party sits in judgment of someone.”

McDaniel said it was the first time she was aware of the GOP censuring a member of Congress, and party officials could not recall another time the special Rule 11 had been used for a challenger against an incumbent. The chairwoman said she had not spoken to Cheney about the committee or the party’s moves to punish her. “And she hasn’t reached out to me,” she said.

McDaniel said she was particularly upset when an elderly, recently widowed friend of hers was subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 committee after it was reported the friend was an alternate elector at the campaign’s behest. She declined to name the friend.

She and Bossie both said Cheney and Kinzinger were helping Democrats keep the House. “They are propping up Nancy Pelosi,” Bossie said.

Party officials say they are poised to win the majority in the House in November’s midterm elections, but there is internal fear among some party strategists and prominent Republicans that the Jan. 6 committee and its findings could be an albatross.

Bossie, a committeeman from Maryland and a two-time campaign aide for Trump, originally wrote the resolution, but McDaniel became involved in drafting and editing the final version, along with other members. The resolution changed from an original draft Bossie sent to others, where he called for Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to expel Cheney and Kinzinger from the conference. In the final draft, the RNC did not call for McCarthy to expel Cheney but said the party would no longer support her.

In the joint interview, Bossie and McDaniel both said they were not doing this at the behest of Trump, and McDaniel said she had not spoken to the former president about it. However, Trump has signaled support for the resolution, said a person close to him who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.

The censure is a more ceremonial move, while the rule change could lead to broader ramifications in the race. Cheney has far outraised Hageman, with almost $5 million on hand, while Hageman has less than $500,000.

Trump has repeatedly attacked Cheney, and several of his allies are running the campaign of her challenger. Donald Trump Jr. and tech billionaire Peter Thiel, among others, have held fundraisers against her.

McDaniel declined to say what the party would actually do in Wyoming because she said no decisions had yet been made. The party could send money, volunteers, data and other things to the Wyoming GOP, now the rule has passed, which could then send the resources to use against Cheney. McDaniel also declined to say whether she would campaign personally against Cheney. “No decision has been made,” she said.

Doug Heye, a former communications director for the Republican Party, said he could not remember a recent precedent where the party censured a member and worked against an incumbent. Several other former chairpersons and officials said they were unaware of such a move either.

“The rule allows them to send money, which would not be insignificant,” Heye said. “Everything else is fairly insignificant besides the money.”