Cheney has refused to stop repudiating Trump and defiantly signaled after the meeting that she intended to use her removal to try pointing the party away from him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office,\u201d she told reporters.<\/p>\n
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and No. 2 GOP leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana all aligned against Cheney. GOP lawmakers complained that Cheney\u2019s offense wasn\u2019t her view of Trump but her persistence in publicly expressing it, undermining the unity they want party leaders to display in advance of next year\u2019s elections, when they hope to win House control.<\/p>\n
Even so, stripping Cheney, 54, of her leadership job stood as a striking, perhaps defining moment for the GOP.<\/p>\n
One of the nation\u2019s two major parties was in effect declaring an extraordinary requirement for admission to its highest ranks: fealty to, or at least silence about, Trump\u2019s lie that he lost his November re-election bid because of widespread fraud. In states around the country, officials and judges of both parties found no evidence to support Trump\u2019s claims that extensive illegalities caused his defeat.<\/p>\n
Cheney\u2019s replacement was widely expected to be Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who entered the House in 2015 at age 30, then the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Stefanik owns a more moderate voting record than Cheney but has evolved into a vigorous Trump defender who\u2019s echoed some of his unfounded claims about widespread election cheating.<\/p>\n
It was initially unclear when the separate vote on Cheney\u2019s replacement would occur.<\/p>\n
Buck, the former chairman of the Colorado GOP, told reporters that he doesn\u2019t support Stefanik becoming conference chairwoman, according to the pool report.<\/p>\n
Asked about Stefanik, Buck said: \u201cI think she\u2019s a liberal.\u201d<\/p>\n