Wisconsin Republicans in Congress will vote to oust Liz Cheney from GOP leadership after her rebukes of Trump

Craig Gilbert
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, left, and Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.

WASHINGTON - At least four of Wisconsin’s five Republican U.S. House members say they’ll vote to oust Liz Cheney from her party leadership position in Congress after Cheney's ongoing rebukes of former President Donald Trump. 

And that includes at least one lawmaker who publicly supported Cheney on a previous challenge to her leadership in February: Mike Gallagher.

The other three are Glenn Grothman, Bryan Steil and Scott Fitzgerald. (Another Wisconsin Republican, Tom Tiffany, had not responded Tuesday to a reporters' query).   

Gallagher said in a statement Tuesday:

“House Democrats under Speaker Pelosi have been ruthless in advancing their radical progressive agenda, and Rep. Cheney can no longer unify the House Republican conference in opposition to that agenda. We need to take back the House in 2022 and permanently retire Pelosi.”

Gallagher had not only backed Cheney in February but was public in his support for her on what was a secret ballot. Cheney easily survived that challenge, which was prompted by her vote to impeach Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol. 

Unlike Cheney, Gallagher had voted against impeaching Trump, but like Cheney, he condemned Trump's part in the events of Jan. 6, said Trump lied about the election, and praised Cheney as a “principled conservative and our most passionate advocate for American primacy,” saying in February, “She is also unafraid to clearly state and defend her views even if they are unpopular. As we figure out where Republicans go from here, we need Liz’s leadership. We must be a big tent party or else condemn ourselves to irrelevance.”

Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, has faced a backlash within her party for her continued condemnations of Trump, assailing him for lying about the 2020 election, for repeatedly claiming it was “stolen” and for igniting the storming of the Capitol Jan. 6.

Cheney repeated those condemnations in a floor speech Tuesday night, calling out fellow Republicans for tolerating Trump's baseless claims about the election. 

“Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar. I will not participate in that. I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of the law and joins the former president's crusade to undermine our democracy," Cheney said. "We must speak the truth. Our election was not stolen."

Cheney is the House Republican conference chair, which is the number three GOP leadership post in that chamber.  

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has called a vote for Wednesday to remove Cheney from the Republican leadership team and is seeking to replace her with New York Republican Elise Stefanik, who has a less conservative voting record than Cheney but has emerged as a staunch Trump loyalist echoing his false claims of a stolen election.

The vote on Cheney will be done behind closed doors and by secret ballot. 

In an interview Monday, Grothman said he had voted against Cheney when she easily survived the previous challenge to her leadership three months ago.

“I think she is unnecessarily disruptive,” said Grothman, who said he disagreed with Cheney’s view that Trump bore responsibility for the storming of the Capitol.

“I don’t think the president caused the riot,” Grothman said. “She’s keeping the eye off of our major problems of what’s going on at the border, the excessive spending.”

Grothman also said his concerns about Cheney predate her criticisms of Trump, saying that when Liz Cheney was part of the Bush administration, she represented a strain of Republicanism that was guilty of overspending.

An aide to GOP freshman Fitzgerald released the following statement:

“Congressman Fitzgerald does not have confidence in the ability of Congresswoman Cheney to be the top messenger for the Republican Conference. When a vote takes place on conference leadership, he will not be voting for Congresswoman Liz Cheney to remain in her post. The Congressman looks forward to supporting Congresswoman Elise Stefanik and believes she is qualified to lead the conference going forward.”

In a statement, Steil did not say why he wanted to oust Cheney but said: “I support electing a new Conference Chair in the House, but the real issue is the damage President Biden’s policies are doing to our country and our workforce.”  

Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan rebuked Republicans for seeking to oust Cheney, saying on Twitter: “When Liz Cheney isn’t Republican enough for the Republican Party, you have a real identity crisis in the GOP. And their arguments about ‘cancel culture’? What about Liz, guys? (It IS mostly guys) Clueless and hypocrites.”