RNC censures Reps. Cheney, Kinzinger over work on Jan. 6 panel
The Republican National Committee approved a resolution formally censuring GOP Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for participating in the House select committee investigating last year’s Capitol riot.
An RNC spokesperson confirmed to The Post that the resolution passed by voice vote during the committee’s winter meeting Friday.
Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Kinzinger (R-Ill.) — two of Congress’ most vocal critics of former President Trump’s rhetoric surrounding the attack on the Capitol and the 2020 presidential election — are the only Republicans sitting on the nine-person committee set up by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) last year.
The resolution states that both lawmakers “have demonstrated, with actions and words, that they support Democrat efforts to destroy President Trump more than they support winning back a Republican majority in 2022” and accuses them of “participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”
“Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger crossed a line. They chose to join Nancy Pelosi in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse that had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement. “That’s why Republican National Committee members and myself overwhelmingly support this resolution.”
“This is not about them being anti-Trump,” Harmeet Dhillon, RNC national committee person from California, told Politico prior to the vote. “There are plenty of other people in the party who are anti-Trump whose names don’t appear in the resolution. These two took specific action to defy party leadership.”
Cheney and Kinzinger slammed the RNC’s move Thursday night and defended their decision to investigate Trump’s efforts to overturn the election.
“I have no regrets about my decision to uphold my oath of office and defend the Constitution. I will continue to focus my efforts on standing for truth and working to fight the political matrix that’s led us to where we find ourselves today,” Kinzinger tweeted.
“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,” Cheney said, slamming those loyal to Trump.
“I’m a constitutional conservative and I do not recognize those in my party who have abandoned the Constitution to embrace Donald Trump,” she added. “History will be their judge. I will never stop fighting for our constitutional republic. No matter what.”
The censure resolution stopped short of expelling Cheney and Kinzinger from the House Republican conference, a move some members of the right-wing Freedom Caucus had endorsed.
In May of last year, Cheney was removed from her spot as the third-ranking Republican in the House over her rebukes of Trump and decision to support impeaching the former president for inciting the riot. Three months earlier, she was censured by Wyoming’s Republican Party.
In November, her state’s GOP voted 31-29 to no longer recognize her as a member over her repeated criticism of the 45th president.
Some Republicans questioned the RNC’s move, with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) tweeting late Thursday, “The RNC is censuring Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger because they are trying to find out what happened on January 6th – HUH?”
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), McDaniel’s uncle, tweeted harsher condemnation Friday morning.
“Shame falls on a party that would censure persons of conscience, who seek truth in the face of vitriol,” he wrote. “Honor attaches to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for seeking truth even when doing so comes at great personal cost.”
Trump has repeatedly slammed Cheney, Kinzinger and the committee investigating the riot, urging its members to instead investigate the election and former Vice President Mike Pence’s decision to uphold the results.
The 45th president has labeled the panel the “Unselect Committee,” and on Thursday had further choice words for it.
“Why isn’t the corrupt Unselect Committee of political hacks and highly partisan sleazebags in Washington investigating the massive voter fraud and irregularities that took place in the 2020 Presidential Election, rather than spending all of its time investigating those who were protesting its result?” he said in a statement released by his Save America PAC. “It was the Crime of the Century! Large-scale proof of fraud and serious irregularities exist all over the place.”