Author: PolitCens

President Joe Biden toured an electric vehicle plant in Michigan on Tuesday, where he made the case for his $174 billion electric vehicle plan, framing it in the context of competition against China. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report. 
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For many years, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government before Kamala Harris was elected vice president last November. A continual target of Republican criticism, Pelosi has cemented her place in history leading an often-divided Democratic caucus under four U.S. presidents. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.  Produced by: Katherine Gypson
 
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Rancor within the Republican Party peaked last week between members who remain loyal to former President Donald Trump and those who want the party to repudiate him and his continued false claims of election fraud. First, there was the dramatic expulsion of Congresswoman Liz Cheney from her leadership post in the House of Representatives after she voted to impeach Trump and denounced his claims the 2020 election had been “stolen” by the Democrats.  Then came the announcement that more than 100 disgruntled conservatives are exploring the possibility of launching a new political party rededicated to founding ideals. To non-U.S. observers, the creation of a new political party from the shards of one riven by internal discord may seem perfectly natural. Unlike the United States, many democracies around the world operate with a multitude of parties — and new parties can have immediate success. In France, Emmanuel Macron founded the En Marche Party in April 2016. By May 2017, he was elected president of the country. But in the U.S., the history of “third” parties as an alternative to the Republican and Democratic parties that dominate national politics has been less impressive.   ‘Spoilers,’ not winners In the modern era, third parties have never been able to do more than act as a “spoiler” in presidential elections by siphoning off votes from one of the two major parties and have sent only a tiny number of lawmakers to the House or Senate in the past 70 years — never achieving significant levels of power. “The history of third-party movements in the United States is that usually, they end up just getting absorbed into one of the two major parties,” said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “That, or they’re essentially made obsolete by changes from the major party.” The current battle Last week’s announcement of a possible third party came as Republican House members stripped Cheney, daughter of two-term Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, of her position as House Republican conference chair for her continued denunciation of Trump.  That same day, a coalition of disaffected Republicans, including former governors, members of Congress, ambassadors and Cabinet officers, signed a letter demanding the Republican leadership either reform the party or face the creation of an “alternative” political home.   FILE – U.S. Representative Liz Cheney speaks to the media as she arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington after Republicans ousted her from a leadership post over her criticism of former President Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election.The message they want to deliver to Republican Party leaders is “enough is enough,” said Miles Taylor, a former chief of staff in the Trump-era Department of Homeland Security, who penned an anonymous tell-all book about his time in the administration.   “We need to offer a commonsense coalition for this country and a more unifying alternative vision than what we’re seeing from the present GOP, which has now become rotten to its core for the persistent attacks on our democracy,” Taylor told CNN last week. “So, our message is, it is time to either reform or repeal the Republican Party.” But creating a viable third party in the U.S. is easier said than done. ‘Very unusual democracy’Building a successful third party in the United States, if success is defined as having a meaningful role in the operation of the federal government, is extraordinarily difficult because of the way political power is distributed. “I think the first thing that people need to know is that we are a very unusual democracy in a whole series of ways,” said Marjorie Hershey, professor emeritus of political science at Indiana University Bloomington and author of a widely used textbook on American government.   The U.S., she said, is one of only a “very few” two-party systems in democratic countries. Part of the reason for that is because election laws are written by state legislatures, which are themselves dominated by the two major parties. They tend to make it very difficult for new political parties to even be listed on the ballot in the first place.   Steep hill to climb Further, because every member of the House and the Senate is elected in an individual winner-take-all race, a third party, even one with substantial support, can still be shut out of power.  In most other democracies, a party that received 10% of the vote for the legislature would earn a proportionate share of the available seats. In the U.S., though, it is possible for a third-party movement to amass a significant percentage of the overall national vote without securing a single seat in either house of Congress. That would only change if the third party’s support was concentrated in a state or district to the point of giving it a majority of the vote there.   FILE – Officials work on ballots at the Gwinnett County Voter Registration and Elections Headquarters, Nov. 6, 2020, in Lawrenceville, near Atlanta, Georgia.Similarly, the way presidential votes are tallied on a state-by-state basis makes it difficult for a third party to compete. For example, when Texas businessman Ross Perot ran for president in 1992, he was extremely successful in terms of winning votes —receiving 19% overall. But because those votes were spread evenly across the country, he didn’t win any states, and therefore received no votes in the Electoral College.   Weak threat So, when Taylor and his fellow former Republicans threaten the Republican Party with the establishment of a new party, the threat is seen not as an effort to establish a new center of power in U.S. politics that can operate on an equal footing with Republicans and Democrats. Instead, it seems more like a promise to drain enough votes from Republican candidates to ensure Democratic victories. That there is no viable path for an alternative party to actively participate in governing the U.S. is accepted as a given by most Americans. But there are some who wonder if it ought to be. “In so many other democratic systems, a ‘third’ party could be a major party,” Hershey said. “It’s one of those things that’s so telling — what we regard as normal for a democracy in the United States is not at all normal in the larger democratic world.” 
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A Florida politician who emerged as a central figure in the Justice Department’s sex trafficking investigation into Representative Matt Gaetz pleaded guilty Monday to six federal charges and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as part of a plea deal.Joel Greenberg, a longtime associate of Gaetz’s, appeared in federal court in Orlando. He pleaded guilty to six of the nearly three dozen charges he faced, including sex trafficking of a minor, and he admitted he had paid at least one underage girl to have sex with him and other men.Gaetz was not mentioned in the plea agreement or during the court hearing. But Greenberg’s cooperation — as a key figure in the investigation and a close ally of Gaetz — may escalate the potential legal and political liability that the firebrand Republican congressman is facing.Federal prosecutors are examining whether Gaetz and Greenberg paid underage girls and escorts or offered them gifts in exchange for sex, according to two people familiar with the matter. Investigators have also been looking at whether Gaetz and his associates tried to secure government jobs for some of the women, the people said.They are also scrutinizing Gaetz’s connections to the medical marijuana sector, including whether his associates sought to influence legislation Gaetz sponsored.The people had knowledge of the investigation but were not allowed to publicly discuss the ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.Gaetz has denied the allegations and any accusation of wrongdoing, and has said repeatedly he will not resign from Congress. A spokesman for the congressman has said Gaetz “never had sex with a minor and has never paid for sex.”During the nearly hourlong hearing Monday, Greenberg acknowledged he understood the charges of which he was pleading guilty and the possible punishment he faced, and told the judge he was of a sound frame of mind.U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie Hoffman told Greenberg that even though prosecutors may request some leniency from his sentencing judge because of his cooperation, there was no guarantee a judge would agree to the prosecutors’ recommendations and that Greenberg would be unable to change his plea. No sentencing date was immediately set.Monday’s court appearance marked the first time Greenberg has been seen in court since the Gaetz investigation blew into the public spotlight in March. Outside the courthouse, a plane flew over during the hearing pulling a banner that read: “TICK TOCK MATT GAETZ.”After the hearing, Greenberg was taken back to jail in handcuffs and shackles, wearing a dark inmate uniform and looking worn down.As part of his plea deal, Greenberg, a Republican who served as the tax collector in Seminole County, admitted he recruited women for commercial sex acts and paid them more than $70,000 from 2016 to 2018, sometimes through online payment services like Venmo. They include at least one underage girl he paid to have sex with him and others, the plea agreement says.Prosecutors wrote in the plea agreement that Greenberg had introduced the girl to others, who also “engaged in commercial sex acts” with her. The agreement does not identify the men.Greenberg first met the girl online from a website where she was posing as an adult and first paid her $400 after a meeting on a boat, the documents said. He later invited her to hotels in Florida where he and others would have sex with her and supplied her and other people with ecstasy, according to the plea deal.In total, prosecutors say Greenberg had sex with the girl at least seven times.Greenberg’s legal scrutiny began when he was arrested last summer on charges of stalking a political opponent, Brian Beute. Prosecutors said he mailed fake letters to the school where his opponent worked, signed by a nonexistent “very concerned student,” who alleged the opponent had engaged in sexual misconduct with another student.”I wouldn’t want to be him,” Beute, who showed up at the courthouse on Monday, said after the hearing.Greenberg also is accused of embezzling $400,000 from the Seminole County tax collector’s office, according to the indictment filed against him. 
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U.S. House Republicans approved Representative Elise Stefanik on Friday for a top leadership spot, sending a powerful message about the direction of the party by elevating the New York congresswoman noted for her support of former president Donald Trump.     The 36-year-old Stefanik takes over the position of House Republican Party conference chair from Representative Liz Cheney, who was removed Wednesday after calling Trump’s allegations of fraud in the 2020 presidential election “a big lie.”    Thank you to my colleagues for electing me to serve as House Republican Conference Chair and to my constituents across FILE – House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California speaks during his weekly press briefing on Capitol Hill, April 22, 2021.In February, Cheney was the top-ranking Republican to vote to impeach Trump for inciting that riot. Top House Republican Kevin McCarthy did not vote to impeach but said on the House floor, “The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters.”    But McCarthy endorsed Stefanik for the leadership spot earlier this week, saying Republicans “need to be united.”    A four-term member of Congress, Stefanik has a far more moderate voting record than Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney.   Stefanik grew up in upstate New York and was the first in her family to earn a college degree, according to her official biography. Stefanik’s district voted for former President Barack Obama twice before flipping to Trump in the 2016 election. According to her office, Stefanik won ”both 2018 and 2020 by the largest margin of any Republican in the Northeast.”     Stefanik is also a top Republican fundraiser, raising $15 million in the last election cycle while campaigning heavily to elect more Republican women into office.   The New York lawmaker was also one of 138 House Republicans who objected to the 2020 election results, saying, ”Tens of millions of Americans are concerned that the 2020 election featured unconstitutional overreach by unelected state officials and judges ignoring state election laws. We can and we should peacefully and respectfully discuss these concerns.”   But George Washington University’s Brown said Stefanik will have to be careful not to be a top target for a Democratic takeover during the 2022 mid-term election.    “She is also still in a very competitive district. And while she may be wooing the Republican base, she is also now distancing herself from the independents and moderates who were in her district who helped her win election,” Brown said.    
 
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Two members of the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee announced an agreement Friday to form a panel to conduct a bipartisan investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol. The deal was announced in a statement by committee Democratic Chairman Bennie Thompson and its top Republican, John Katko. The legislators said they would introduce a bill for House consideration as early as next week. The measure will call for an investigative commission similar to the one that probed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., they said.  The proposed 10-member commission would consist of five members appointed by each party. The panel would have subpoena power and be required to submit a report by Dec. 31 that includes “recommendations to prevent future attacks on our democratic institutions,” the lawmakers said. The agreement between the lawmakers was reached after both parties disagreed on the scope of the probe for months. The House and Senate must approve the bill before it goes to President Joe Biden for him to sign into law. The Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol building was aimed at preventing the certification of Biden’s election victory over Donald Trump. Critics of Trump say he incited the riot that killed five people, including a federal police officer, when he implored thousands of supporters rallying near the White House to march to the Capitol, where lawmakers were in the process of formally certifying Biden’s win. Trump has shunned any responsibility for the attack on the Capitol.  
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Data missing from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s website is back and updated after a four-year absence under the Trump administration.The EPA’s new Climate Change Indicators website shows that the last decade was the hottest on record; heat waves have increased in frequency from two per year in the 1960s to six per year in the 2010s; and sea levels rose as much as 8 inches in coastal areas.”With this long overdue update, we now have additional data and a new set of indicators that show climate change has become even more evident, stronger, and extreme — as has the imperative that we take meaningful action,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.The site pulls together data from 13 federal agencies, plus academics and other organizations, on everything from greenhouse gas emissions to winter ranges of birds.The usual metrics are here, including rising temperatures and sea levels and shrinking glaciers.The updated version adds a dozen new indicators including the frequency and duration of heat waves, melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, and summer energy use for air conditioning.The website shows “the public and planners the many costs that climate change has on their daily lives, public health and ecosystems that many livelihoods depend upon,” said Brenda Ekwurzel, director of climate science at the Union of Concerned Scientists.The move to update the data is part of the Biden administration’s efforts to undo his predecessor’s sidelining of science and scientists.Former President Donald Trump, who repeatedly called climate change a “hoax,” had disbanded panels of scientists advising the EPA on regulations. He also limited the types of data that the agency could consider when writing rules.Trump dismissed the scientific consensus that human emissions of greenhouse gases are warming the planet. His administration sought to weaken regulations aimed at reducing them. The Trump EPA left the climate indicators website stuck in 2016 with outdated data.But agencies across the federal government continued to record how the climate was changing and the effects those changes were having on the environment and human society.”The science kept going,” Ekwurzel said. “The indicators and the data are always being collected. They were just harder to get to.”
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Data missing from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s website is back and updated after a four-year absence under the Trump administration.The EPA’s new Climate Change Indicators website shows that the last decade was the hottest on record; heat waves have increased in frequency from two per year in the 1960s to six per year in the 2010s; and sea levels rose as much as 8 inches in coastal areas.”With this long overdue update, we now have additional data and a new set of indicators that show climate change has become even more evident, stronger, and extreme — as has the imperative that we take meaningful action,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.The site pulls together data from 13 federal agencies, plus academics and other organizations, on everything from greenhouse gas emissions to winter ranges of birds.The usual metrics are here, including rising temperatures and sea levels and shrinking glaciers.The updated version adds a dozen new indicators including the frequency and duration of heat waves, melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, and summer energy use for air conditioning.The website shows “the public and planners the many costs that climate change has on their daily lives, public health and ecosystems that many livelihoods depend upon,” said Brenda Ekwurzel, director of climate science at the Union of Concerned Scientists.The move to update the data is part of the Biden administration’s efforts to undo his predecessor’s sidelining of science and scientists.Former President Donald Trump, who repeatedly called climate change a “hoax,” had disbanded panels of scientists advising the EPA on regulations. He also limited the types of data that the agency could consider when writing rules.Trump dismissed the scientific consensus that human emissions of greenhouse gases are warming the planet. His administration sought to weaken regulations aimed at reducing them. The Trump EPA left the climate indicators website stuck in 2016 with outdated data.But agencies across the federal government continued to record how the climate was changing and the effects those changes were having on the environment and human society.”The science kept going,” Ekwurzel said. “The indicators and the data are always being collected. They were just harder to get to.”
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A top immigration official on Thursday pledged a comprehensive response to the influx of unaccompanied minors at the U.S.-Mexico border. In testimony on Capitol Hill, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told concerned lawmakers a migrant crisis early in the Biden presidency has been contained. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.Producer: Katherine Gypson. 
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The U.S. military has completed about 10% of its pullout from Afghanistan. But defense officials left members of Congress with more questions than answers Wednesday, as the U.S. inches closer and closer to President Joe Biden’s Sept. 11  withdrawal deadline. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has the latest.
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U.S. House Republicans are expected to pick Representative Elise Stefanik for a top leadership spot Friday, sending a powerful message about the direction of the party by elevating the New York congresswoman noted for her support of former President Donald Trump.Stefanik, 36, would take over the position of House GOP Conference chair from Representative Liz Cheney, who was removed Wednesday after calling Trump’s allegations of fraud in the 2020 presidential election “a big lie.”Stefanik’s bid for the third most powerful position in the House Republican caucus caps a shift from a largely unknown lawmaker with a moderate voting record representing the once-Democratic New York 21st Congressional District to a media star who earned the attention of Trump during his first impeachment trial.’Better at the show’“Former President Donald Trump does not think that ideology, issues or policy really are what drives elections; he believes that it’s all about the show. And he believes that Representative Stefanik is better at the show than Representative Cheney,” said Lara Brown, director of the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University in Washington.Trump endorsed Stefanik on his blog Monday, writing, “The House GOP has a massive opportunity to upgrade this week from warmonger Liz Cheney to gifted communicator Elise Stefanik.”He continued, “We need someone in leadership who has experience flipping districts from Blue to Red as we approach the important 2022 midterms, and that’s Elise! She knows how to win, which is what we need.”Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., speaks to reporters after House Republicans voted to oust her from her leadership post as chair of the House Republican Conference, May 12, 2021.In her first interview since announcing she would run for conference chair, Stefanik told former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon last week that she saw the job as an opportunity “to represent the majority of the House Republicans, and the vast majority of the House Republicans support President Trump, and they support his focus on election integrity and election security.”Cheney’s statements on the presidential vote revived the debate within the Republican Party over Trump’s unsubstantiated claims he won the November election over Democrat Joe Biden. Those claims culminated in his supporters rioting at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 to try to prevent the counting of Electoral College votes for Biden. The worst security breach on the Capitol in more than two centuries left five people dead.’War with the Constitution’“The election is over. That is the rule of law. That is our constitutional process. Those who refuse to accept the rulings of our courts are at war with the Constitution,” Cheney said on the House floor Tuesday. “Our duty is clear. Every one of us who has sworn the oath must act to prevent the unraveling of our democracy. This is not about policy. This is not about partisanship. This is about our duty as Americans.”In a Monday letter ahead of the vote, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said, “These internal conflicts need to be resolved so as to not detract from the efforts of our collective team. Having heard from so many of you in recent days, it’s clear that we need to make a change.”FILE – House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California speaks during his weekly press briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 22, 2021.In February, Cheney was the top-ranking Republican to vote to impeach Trump for inciting that riot. McCarthy did not vote to impeach but said on the House floor, “The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters.”But McCarthy endorsed Stefanik for the leadership spot earlier this week, saying Republicans “need to be united.”A four-term member of Congress, Stefanik has a far more moderate voting record than Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney.Stefanik grew up in upstate New York and was the first in her family to earn a college degree, according to her official biography. Stefanik’s district voted for former President Barack Obama twice before flipping to Trump in the 2016 election. According to her office, Stefanik won “both 2018 and 2020 by the largest margin of any Republican in the Northeast.”Key fundraiserStefanik is also a top Republican fundraiser, raising $15 million in the last election cycle while campaigning heavily to elect more Republican women into office.The New York lawmaker was also one of 138 House Republicans who objected to the 2020 election results, saying, “Tens of millions of Americans are concerned that the 2020 election featured unconstitutional overreach by unelected state officials and judges ignoring state election laws. We can and we should peacefully and respectfully discuss these concerns.”But George Washinton University’s Brown said Stefanik will have to be careful not to be a top target for a Democratic takeover during the 2022 midterm election.“She is also still in a very competitive district. And while she may be wooing the Republican base, she is also now distancing herself from the independents and moderates who were in her district who helped her win election,” Brown said.
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Republicans sought to shift the narrative on the violent Jan. 6 insurrection during a congressional hearing Wednesday, with some painting the Trump supporters who stormed the building as patriots who have been unfairly harassed, as Democrats clashed with the former Pentagon chief while drilling into the government’s unprepared response.  
The colliding lines of questioning, and a failure to settle on a universally agreed-upon set of facts, underscored the challenges Congress faces as it investigates what law enforcement officials have described as a deadly act of domestic terrorism carried out by Trump loyalists bent on overturning the election.  
The hearing before the House Oversight Committee unfolded as the House Republicans removed Rep. Liz Cheney from her leadership post after she rebuked former President Donald Trump for his false claims of election fraud and his role in inciting the Capitol attack.  
Former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen testified publicly for the first time about Jan. 6, defending their respective agencies’ responses to the chaos. But the hearing soon devolved into partisan bickering about how that day unfolded, with Democrats accusing Republicans of rewriting history and GOP lawmakers insisting their party had been unfairly vilified for objecting to election results.
“I find it hard to believe the revisionist history that’s being offered by my colleagues on the other side,” Rep. Stephen Lynch, a Massachusetts Democrat, proclaimed in exasperation. Other Democrats made similar accusations, with Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland urging his Republican colleagues to stop with the “evasions” and “distractions.”
Republicans sought to refocus attention from the hundreds of Trump supporters who stormed into the Capitol as Congress was certifying the election results. Instead, they suggested that Democrats had failed to forcefully condemn violence in American cities last summer during periods of civil unrest.  
In ways that clearly rewrote the facts of the day and the investigations that resulted, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona said the Justice Department was “harassing peaceful patriots.” He described a California woman who was fatally shot by an officer during the insurrection after climbing through the broken part of a door as having “been executed,” even though prosecutors have said the officer won’t be prosecuted.
“It was Trump supporters who lost their lives that day, not Trump supporters who were taking the lives of others,” said Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia, overlooking that loyalists to the president instigated the riot, smashing through windows and spraying officers with pepper and bear spray.
 
One Capitol Police officer who was injured while confronting rioters suffered a stroke and died a day later of natural causes. Dozens more were severely injured, some of whom may never return to duty.
Democrats, for their part, clashed with Miller repeatedly over the hours-long delay in dispatching the National Guard to the Capitol, with Rep. Ro Khanna of California saying he was dumfounded “we had someone like you in that role.” After Miller described Lynch’s line of questioning as ridiculous, Lynch shot back that he was ridiculous.
“You were AWOL, Mr. Secretary,” said Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois.
“That’s completely inaccurate,” Miller replied. “That’s completely inaccurate.”  
In testimony aimed at rebutting broad criticism that military forces were too slow to arrive even as the pro-Trump rioters violently breached the building and stormed inside, Miller told the committee he was concerned before the insurrection that sending troops to the Capitol could fan fears of a military coup and cause a repeat of the deadly Kent State shootings in 1970.  
“No such thing was going to occur on my watch, but these concerns, and hysteria about them, nonetheless factored into my decisions regarding the appropriate and limited use of our armed forces to support civilian law enforcement during the Electoral College certification,” Miller said. “My obligation to the nation was to prevent a constitutional crisis.”
He said that though Trump had encouraged his supporters to protest the election results, he did not believe Trump’s rhetoric — which led to his impeachment — was the “unitary” factor in the riot. Trump was ultimately acquitted by the Senate.  
Miller denied that Trump had any involvement in the Defense Department’s response, saying the men did not speak that day. But Democrats made clear their focus on Trump and his role in the riot.
“The failures of Jan. 6 go beyond the craven lies and provocations of one man,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat and the committee’s chairwoman.
Some Republicans sought to attack what they said was a false narrative that Trump had instigated the riot and focused instead on violence that roiled American cities last summer in the days following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. A white police officer had pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes as the Black man said he couldn’t breathe and went motionless.
“What is wrong is when individuals take to crime, violence and mob tactics,” said Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the committee’s top Republican. “This was wrong on Jan. 6, and this was wrong last summer when several cities across the country were attacked by rioters.”
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio also asserted that Republicans were being unfairly maligned for doubting election results when he said Democrats have done so in the past — although a riot at the Capitol aimed at halting the certification of those results was an unprecedented moment in history.
“It’s not about revisionist history,” Jordan said. “It’s about the double-standard that Democrats want to have. That’s the part that bothers me most.”
Rosen in his testimony defended the Justice Department’s preparation and also said there was no evidence of widespread election fraud that could have caused the results to be voided. His former boss, William Barr, has said the same.
 
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Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives ousted Congresswoman Liz Cheney Wednesday from her party leadership post over her criticism of former president Donald Trump for his claims that voter fraud cost him re-election last November.
 
The caucus, in a voice vote, removed the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney from her position as chair of the House Republican Conference, the third-highest position in House Republican leadership, responsible for communicating the party’s message to the general public.
 
Republicans are in a slight minority in the House compared to the majority Democrats, but one key Republican, Congressman Jim Banks of Indiana, said the vote against Cheney signaled a new push to win control in the 2022 congressional elections.
 
“We are unified behind a single mission of winning back the majority, and it was clear from the way that the vote occurred that 99% of our members are focused on that, so it’s time to move on,” said Banks, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee.
 
The 54-year-old Cheney, after losing her party leadership position, told reporters, “We cannot both embrace the big lie [that Trump was cheated out of another four-year term] and embrace the Constitution. I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office” in the White House.
Trump, who has never personally conceded his loss to President Joe Biden, continues to claim he was cheated out of re-election. He left Washington hours before Biden was inaugurated January 20 and has been living at his Atlantic oceanfront mansion in Florida.
 
After the vote against Cheney, Trump said, “Liz Cheney is a bitter, horrible human being. She has no personality or anything good having to do with politics or our country.”A sign bearing the name of Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., outside of her office on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 11, 2021.Cheney, the lone representative from the lightly populated western state of Wyoming, has frequently denounced Trump’s oft-repeated claims that he, and not Biden, was the legitimate winner of the November election, despite his campaign losing five dozen court challenges to overturn the final results in key states that he lost.  
 
Cheney first drew fire within the party when she, along with nine other House Republicans, voted for Trump’s impeachment for his role in inciting the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, when hundreds of his supporters stormed the building to keep lawmakers from certifying Biden’s Electoral College victory. Five people died in the chaos that day and more than 400 people are facing criminal charges.
 
In a speech on the House floor Tuesday night, Cheney described Trump’s continuing efforts to delegitimize the election results as “a threat America has never seen before.”
 
“A former president who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol in an effort to steal the election has resumed his aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him. He risks inciting further violence.”
 
Defending her staunch conservative record, Cheney said, “the most conservative of conservative principles is reverence for the rule of law.” She said she “will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president’s crusade to undermine our democracy.”FILE – Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., center, accompanied by from left, Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y. and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, speaks to the media.Congresswoman Elise Stefanik of New York, who has enthusiastically endorsed Trump’s claims, likely will be elected to replace Cheney as party conference chair.  House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy announced his support for Stefanik during a recent interview on U.S. cable network Fox News.   
 
Stefanik has compiled a more moderate voting record than Cheney, but unlike Cheney, has embraced Trump’s continuing role in Republican politics as he weighs whether to run again for the presidency in 2024.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the leader of the Democratic majority in the chamber, said, “Congresswoman Liz Cheney is a leader of great courage, patriotism and integrity. Today, House Republicans declared that those values are unwelcome in the Republican party.” 
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Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are poised to remove Representative Liz Cheney from her party leadership post over her criticism of former President Donald Trump’s claims of fraud in last November’s presidential election. The caucus is expected to vote Wednesday to oust the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney from her post as chair of the A sign bearing the name of Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., outside of her office on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 11, 2021.Cheney, the lone representative for the western state of Wyoming, has steadfastly  denounced former President Trump’s claims that he, and not Democrat Joe Biden, was the legitimate winner of the November election, despite his campaign losing numerous court challenges to overturn the final results in key states that he lost. She first drew fire within the party when she voted for Trump’s impeachment for his role in inciting the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, when hundreds of his supporters stormed the building to keep lawmakers from certifying Biden’s Electoral College victory.  In a speech on the House floor on Tuesday night, Cheney described Trump’s continuing efforts to delegitimize the election results as “ a threat America has never seen before.” “A former president who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol in an effort to steal the election has resumed his aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him. He risks inciting further violence.” Defending her staunch conservative record, Cheney said “the most conservative of conservative principles is reverence for the rule of law.”  She said “will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president’s crusade to undermine our democracy.” FILE – Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., center, accompanied by from left, Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y. and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, speaks to the media.Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, who has enthusiastically endorsed Trump’s claims, will likely be elected to replace Cheney as party conference chair.  House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy announced his support for Stefanik during a recent  interview on the U.S. cable news network, Fox News. 
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Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are poised to remove Representative Liz Cheney from her party leadership post over her criticism of former President Donald Trump’s claims of fraud in last November’s presidential election. The caucus is expected to vote Wednesday to oust the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney from her post as chair of the Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., speaks with reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 17, 2019.  She first drew fire within the party when she voted for Trump’s impeachment for his role in inciting the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, when hundreds of his supporters stormed the building to keep lawmakers from certifying Biden’s Electoral College victory.  In a speech on the House floor on Tuesday night, Cheney described Trump’s continuing efforts to delegitimize the election results as “ a threat America has never seen before.” “A former president who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol in an effort to steal the election has resumed his aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him. He risks inciting further violence.” Defending her staunch conservative record, Cheney said “the most conservative of conservative principles is reverence for the rule of law.”  She said “will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president’s crusade to undermine our democracy.” Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, who has enthusiastically endorsed Trump’s claims, will likely be elected to replace Cheney as party conference chair.  House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy announced his support for Stefanik during a recent  interview on the U.S. cable news network, Fox News. 
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Top House Republican Kevin McCarthy on Sunday publicly endorsed Rep. Elise Stefanik for the post of No. 3 leader, cementing party support of the Donald Trump loyalist over Rep. Liz Cheney, an outspoken critic of the former president for promoting discredited claims that the 2020 election was stolen. House Republicans could vote as early as Wednesday to remove Cheney, the highest-ranking woman in the Republican leadership and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, and replace her with Stefanik, whose ascension has received Trump’s backing. Asked in an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” whether he supported Stefanik, R-N.Y., for the job of Republican Conference chair, McCarthy responded: “Yes, I do.” “We want to be united in moving forward, and I think that is what will take place,” he said in response to a question about whether he had the votes to oust Cheney, R-Wyo. McCarthy said the leadership post must focus on a message “day in and day out” on what he said were the problems of the Biden administration. FILE – Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the House Republican Conference chair, speaks with reporters following a GOP strategy session on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 20, 2021.Cheney has taken on Republicans, including McCarthy, R-Calif., saying on Twitter that those who indulge Trump’s false claims of a stolen presidential election are “spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.” In an opinion essay Wednesday in The Washington Post, she denounced the “dangerous and anti-democratic Trump cult of personality,” and warned her fellow Republicans against embracing or ignoring his statements “for fundraising and political purposes.” She also said McCarthy had “changed his story” after initially saying Trump “bears responsibility” for the January 6 attack on the Capitol. McCarthy initially criticized Trump’s actions, and in a private call during the insurrection, had reportedly urged the then-president to call off the rioters. The GOP leader now says he does not believe Trump provoked the riot. McCarthy said that efforts by Republicans to remove Cheney are not based on her views of Trump or her vote to impeach Trump over the January 6 riot. He said she was distracting from Republicans’ bid to win back the House in 2022 and successfully oppose President Joe Biden’s agenda, goals that McCarthy believes will need Trump’s support. McCarthy complained last week that he had “lost confidence” in Cheney and “had it with her” over her continuing remarks about Trump, according to a leaked recording of his exchange on “Fox and Friends.” Cheney has a more conservative voting record in the House than Stefanik, a onetime Trump critic who evolved into an ardent ally. She previously opposed Trump’s tax cuts. “You have this real battle right now in the party, this idea of let’s just put our differences aside and be unified,” said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who also voted to impeach Trump. “They’re going to get rid of Liz Cheney because they’d much rather pretend that the conspiracy is either real or not confront it than to actually confront it and maybe have to take the temporary licks to save this party and in the long term this country,” he said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” The second-ranking House Republican leader, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, has announced his support for Stefanik.
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Some Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators continue to falsely claim that President Joe Biden’s climate plan will force Americans to eat far less red meat. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara looks at how burgers have become the latest battlefield in the country’s culture war.
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