House Republicans on Wednesday removed Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), a one-time party star and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, from her party leadership post for steadfastly combating the election lies of Donald Trump. It was a stunning fall for a woman who just months ago was revered for her ties to the party's past and her role in its future.
The vote to remove Cheney as chair of the House Republican Conference came Wednesday, with a closed-door voice vote -- meaning individual members were not on the record with their vote. Cheney is widely expected to be replaced by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), whose record is actually less conservative but who recently has demonstrated utter fealty to Trump.
Other Republicans who voted to impeach Trump have largely stayed silent since, and mostly have maintained their status in the party. Cheney's downfall -- and her public pledge to continue seeking to save the GOP from Trump -- led to martyr-like portrayals in national media, but she was largely complicit in her own demise.
Despite Cheney's apparent commitment to truth, she previously said nothing about Republican lies in previous administrations.
Most notably, Cheney never spoke out against the false narratives pushed by Pres. Bush and her father to justify the invasion of Iraq. The failure of that invasion provided fodder for Trump's rise.
On the issue of voter fraud -- Trump's most potent political weapon -- Cheney was also silent when it mattered. Trump did not invent the idea to use baseless allegations of voter fraud to justify laws restricting ballot access.
During the Bush administration, the White House secretly pushed federal prosecutors to gin up voter fraud cases -- in order to establish rationales for voter-suppression laws. Prosecutors who refused were fired.
When Democrats investigated to find out the real reason for the prosecutor purge, Cheney's father called it a "witch hunt." His daughter never refuted it.