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Liz Cheney, a Republic Representative from Wyoming, has been at the center of ongoing controversy within the Republican Party. Cheney has been an outspoken and vocal critic of former President Donald Trump, which has landed her in some trouble with other Republicans. The main problem at issue: in 2020, following the reveal of the election results, Trump repeatedly insisted that the election was rigged and stolen from him.
However, Cheney disagreed, stating that the president was setting a bad example for future elections by undermining the integrity of the US electoral system. These views make her an outcast in a Republican Party eager to stand behind the president. They support his claims that he was robbed of a second term.
Cheney has been vocal about her opposition to the current direction of the Republican Party. In an op-ed for the Washington Post, she accuses the party of following a “cult of personality” in Trump instead of upholding the Constitution’s values.
However, Cheney’s remarks are vanishingly unpopular among Republican leadership. Despite Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, and the Democrats seizing back control of the Senate, Republicans are doubling down on the brand of politics that saw them ascendant in 2016.
Liz Cheney is the number three Republican in the House of Representatives, a position of leadership in the party that makes her unique. She’s one of the highest-ranking Republicans to contradict Trump publicly and advocate for the party to move away from his brand of politics.
However, her tenure in that third spot could be coming to an end. Other leaders in the party have expressed doubts about her ability to “perform the job,” while Trump and number two Republican Steve Scalise want to see Cheney replaced with Elise Stefanik.
Some centrist and moderate Republicans have framed the period following Trump’s presidential defeat as a “crossroads,” much like Cheney herself argued in her op-ed. Some of the Republican Party haven’t felt like there was ever much choice, to begin with.
Trump is an exceedingly popular figure among the party leadership. Despite his electoral loss, he remains an influential politician among Republican voters. So, has this been a crossroads? Or was Trump’s place as the leader of the modern Republican Party never in doubt?
