Whether Trump takes another shot at the current administration in 2024 or not, it is clear that the current Republican voter base has lost its patience for establishmentarians like Liz Cheney.
Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) was ousted from House Republican leadership, as House GOP members removed her from her position as conference chair by a voice vote shortly after their closed-door meeting came to order. The meeting lasted for a mere 20 minutes.
Still, Cheney proceeded to tell reporters after the vote that she “will do everything I can to make sure the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office.” Cheney had been the target of stark criticism from both House and Senate Republicans due to her staunch opposition to President Trump.
As conference chair, Cheney was the third-highest ranking Republican in the House of Representatives. She was also one of the 10 Republicans to side with House Democrats to vote for the second impeachment of the former president, and recently asserted that the GOP must “steer away from the dangerous and anti-democratic Trump cult of personality,” in an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post.
On the night before the vote, Cheney delivered a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives, warning her party that she “will not sit back and watch in silence” as the former president makes ‘baseless’ claims that he won the election.
Liz Cheney’s swift ousting from the House leadership indicates the widening divide between establishmentarian Republicans such as herself and Mitt Romney, and the newly formed ‘Trumpist’ movement, based upon the beliefs and policy positions of the former president.
Despite this, however, Donald Trump still retains a solid hold on the Republican Party, even though he is no longer the nation’s chief executive. According to a poll conducted by Morning Consult, 68 percent of Republicans say Trump is more in touch with the party’s rank and file than congressional Republicans, and 54 percent of Republicans say they would vote for Trump in the 2024 presidential primary if it were held today.
Such disdain for the Republican establishment was also unabashedly conveyed by voters when Utah Senator Mitt Romney was booed and heckled at the recently held Utah State Republican Convention.
It is no secret that the future of the GOP is uncertain, but one thing is definitely for sure: Trump may be out of office, but his power and influence continues to send shock waves throughout the party. Whether Trump takes another shot at the current administration in 2024 or not, it is clear that the current Republican voter base has lost its patience for establishmentarians like Liz Cheney.
Luke Lattanzi, Staff Writer and Contributor at American Pigeon
