Anti-Trump Republican Liz Cheney wants to purge her party of Donald Trump, accusing her fellow conservative lawmakers of “trying to enable the former president.” Republican voters, however, still favor Trump in massive numbers.
One of the strongest anti-Trump voices in the Republican party, Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming), marked the upcoming anniversary of the Capitol Hill riot by talking to multiple cable news networks to call for Trump to be excommunicated from the party.
Cheney also implored the GOP to keep the Democrat-run January 6 Committee – derided by both Trump and Republican leadership as a “sham” – operational should they retake control of the House in November.
“We as Republicans have a choice to make … we can either be loyal to Donald Trump or be loyal to the Constitution,” she told CBS News on Sunday. “We cannot be both. And right now there are far too many Republicans who are trying to enable the former president, embrace the former president, look the other way and hope that the former president goes away, trying to obstruct the activities of this committee, but we won’t be deterred.”
Speaking to both CBS and ABC News on Sunday, Cheney called Trump “clearly unfit for future office” and told both networks that the former president “can never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again.”
Cheney has frequently and publicly castigated Trump since before the 2020 election, and her open opposition to the former President saw House Republicans vote in May to oust her from her leadership position, and the Wyoming Republican Party to vote in November to no longer recognize her as a member. Trump has also hit back at Cheney on numerous occasions, calling the congresswoman “a warmongering fool who has no business in Republican Party leadership” and slamming her for supporting the “Democrat Impeachment Hoax.”
Despite being criticized from within his own party and banned from social media, Trump remains wildly popular among conservative voters. A Reuters poll published at the end of December found that more than half of Republicans (54%) said that they would support Trump if he ran for office again in 2024, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis coming in a distant second at 11%, and no other candidate scoring above single digits.
Trump has repeatedly hinted at another run for the presidency, and said in November that he will “probably” wait until after this year’s midterm elections to announce his candidacy.