Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst criticized her own party on Monday for seeking to oust Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney from her House Republican leadership post, The Hill reports.
Ernst, the vice-chair of the Senate Republican Conference, accused fellow Republicans of the same “cancel culture” that they often rail against.
"I feel it's OK to go ahead and express what you feel is right to express and, you know, cancel culture is cancel culture no matter how you look at it,” she told reporters. “Unfortunately, I think there are those that are trying to silence others in the party.”
Ernst stressed that she still supports Trump, "but I still think we shouldn't be trying to cancel voices."
"What we can do is come together and try to win seats in 2022. I think that's what all of us should be focused on," she added.
Cheney set to get the boot:
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said on Sunday that he will support New York Rep. Elise Stefanik as Cheney’s replacement. The House GOP caucus is set to vote on whether to recall Cheney on Wednesday.
“We need to be united, and that starts with leadership,” McCarthy told Fox News. “That’s why we will have a vote next week.”
Other Republicans piled on.
“Right now it’s clear that she doesn’t represent the views of the majority of our conference,” Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, the chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, told Fox. “Liz Cheney is the only Republican leader who attacked the memo about making the Republican Party the party of the working class.”
Stefanik is expected to replace Cheney. She has reportedly told colleagues she only plans to hold the job through 2022, when she is reportedly eyeing a bid to challenge New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
GOP pushback:
Some Republicans are privately pushing back on McCarthy, according to Politico. Cheney previously faced a vote to remove her from leadership but beat back the challenge.
One Republican told Politico that he may oppose McCarthy for House speaker due to the push to oust Cheney “accused McCarthy of having no moral compass as he moves to punish Cheney while allowing members like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz to run wild.”
“Kevin McCarthy has pissed off enough members of his own conference that he’s going to have to go back to his former days as a whip to try to figure out where his votes are” to become speaker, the Republican told Politico. “I’d be worried if I was him. … You have people like me — who are here to do the right thing for all the right reasons and have an expectation of leadership — that are, shall we say, disgusted with the internal squabbling that results from having weak leadership. And it is weak leadership. Straight up.”
