Ronna McDaniel Rebukes Wyoming GOP: Liz Cheney ‘Still Has an ‘R’ Next to Her Name’
Republican Nation Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said on Thursday that Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) is still a Republican, despite the Wyoming Republican Party voting to say she is not.
McDaniel spoke with CSPAN while at a breakfast held by the Christian Science Monitor and said, “You know, the Wyoming GOP took their actions. Obviously, she’s still a Republican. She’s a Republican in the conference. She’s still got an ‘R’ next to her name.”
“I wish she was talking about electing ‘Rs’ more, but yeah,” added McDaniel, referencing Cheney’s willingness to criticize members of her own party.
CNN’s Newsroom interviewed former adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, Olivia Troye, about the dynamic between the state and national Republican parties and the apparent rebuke of the Wyoming GOP by McDaniel:
“Look, I think the struggle is real. They understand that the base of the Republican party right now is Trumpism, and they cannot win elections without drawing out that base. And, so I think for any candidate, and especially the RNC right now, the Republican National Committee, they’re going to have to figure out how to cater to that base and to try to figure out a path forward that includes others,” Troye said.
The Wyoming Republican Party officially voted to no longer recognize Cheney as a member of the GOP in a 31-29 vote Saturday in Buffalo, Wyoming. The vote was the result of nearly one-third of Wyoming’s 23 counties voting to no longer recognize Cheney as a Republican.
In February, the Wyoming GOP voted overwhelmingly to censure Cheney for voting to impeach former President Donald Trump for his role in the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Cheney’s spokesperson responded to the Wyoming GOP by saying it was “laughable” for anybody to suggest Cheney isn’t a “conservative Republican.”
“She is bound by her oath to the Constitution. Sadly a portion of the Wyoming GOP leadership has abandoned that fundamental principle and instead allowed themselves to be held hostage to the lies of a dangerous and irrational man,” Jeremy Adler added in a statement to the Associated Press.
