While some members of the Republican National Committee were prepared last month to expel party Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, they censured them instead during the group’s winter meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, said NBC News reporter Allan Smith.
According to The Washington Post, a resolution introduced by David Bossie of Maryland initially called for Cheney and Kinzinger to be ousted from the party for their participation in a House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection. He also claimed they were attempting to “destroy” former Republican President Donald Trump, whose supporters participated in the insurrection.
Language in the resolution was later adjusted, Buzzfeed News reported. Members of the RNC voted Friday – the last day of the RNC winter meeting – in favor of a censure of the two legislators rather than expulsion. The party Resolutions Committee moved Thursday to bring the censure vote to the entire committee.
Harmeet Dhillon, a member of the California GOP, said the Thursday Resolutions Committee vote was unanimous. According to NBC News, the Friday motion to censure was not unanimous.
Ben Proto, chairman of the Connecticut GOP, was one of few who objected. He said rejection of Cheney and Kinzinger should come from voters rather than the party.
“We don't want to disenfranchise those voters,” said Dhillon, according to Buzzfeed. “But at the same way, we want to send a message that we are disapproving of their conduct.”
She said Cheney and Kinzinger crossed party lines, a move that was against protocol and was “viewed as deeply offensive and a repudiation of the party, so this is the party’s repudiation of them.”
Following the deadly Capitol riot on Jan. 6, Cheney and Kinzinger were among 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump. They are the only two Republicans participating in the investigation into the attack.
In addition to participating in the Jan. 6 investigation, Cheney has spoken out about Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud related to the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to current President Joe Biden. Recently, she said that Trump should not be “anywhere near the Oval Office ever again.”
In May, she was removed from her leadership role in the House Republican caucus for her comments about Trump.
Kinzinger has also been publicly critical of Trump and other members of the GOP, including Sen. Joshua Hawley of Missouri.
“I suspect neither of them is going to be in Congress,” Dhillon said of Cheney and Kinzinger.
In fact, Kinzinger is resigning from Congress when his current term ends next January. Cheney, on the other hand, plans to run in the 2022 midterm election to keep her house seat and faces a primary challenger backed by Trump, according to BuzzFeed.
“The leaders of the Republican Party have made themselves willing hostages to a man who admits he tried to overturn a presidential election and suggests he would pardon Jan. 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy,” Cheney said Thursday regarding the RNC. “I’m a constitutional conservative and I do not recognize those in my party who have abandoned the Constitution to embrace Donald Trump. History will be their judge. I will never stop fighting for our constitutional republic. No matter what.”
During the RNC winter meeting members were also expected to discuss guidelines for the 2024 Republican presidential nominating process and how the RNC will engage in future presidential debates. Representatives from possible host cities for the 2024 Republican National Convention, including Nashville, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and Salt Lake City, will also be in attendance.
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