House Republicans keep Liz Cheney as No 3 leader, won’t punish QAnon backer Marjorie Taylor Greene
- Liz Cheney to stay in leadership position after bitter Republican Party debate
- House Republican leader balks at punishing Marjorie Taylor Greene as Democrats set vote
House Republicans decided to stand by two Republican lawmakers who have polarised the party, voting to retain Liz Cheney as their No 3 leader and saying they’d fight a Democratic push to kick newcomer Marjorie Taylor Greene off her committees.
In a 145-61 secret-ballot vote, House Republicans overwhelmingly rebuffed a rebellion by hard-right conservatives to toss Cheney from leadership after she voted last month to impeach then-President Donald Trump.
Hours earlier, after Democrats slated a House vote for Thursday that would remove Greene from her committees, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy ridiculed them for it. His comments signalled he was dismissing bipartisan demands that the hard-right Georgia Republican be punished for her online embrace of racist and violent views and bizarre conspiracy theories.
The decisions over Greene and Cheney have subjected the Republican Party to a politically agonising test of its direction as it moves beyond the Trump presidency. Since Trump grudgingly vacated the White House last month, the party has been ideologically adrift as it’s struggled over whether to embrace his norm-busting divisiveness or the party’s more traditional, policy-oriented conservative values.
But as Wednesday’s internal showdowns concluded, McCarthy and the House Republicans decided against punishing two of their most high-profile women, whose views enrage opposite ends of the party’s spectrum. The moves were typical of McCarthy’s preference to avoid ruffling feathers as he charts his path to someday becoming House speaker.
