THE GOP SEEMS TO WANT TWO KEY REPUBLICANS TO LIE TO THEIR PARTY

 

…Senator Mitt Romney and Representative, Liz Cheney

 

Both of these Lawmakers are being punished for being honest

 

These are two key Republicans that are having a tough time within their own party.  

They were both highly critical of the former President, Donald Trump and that Republican party is currently owned by the former president.

The Utah Republican Senator was loudly booed at a state party convention, shortly before there was a failed effort to censure him for his votes to convict that former president.

A clip from the event in West Valley City, Utah, shows Romney walking up to a lectern to a raucous mix of cheers and even louder boos from the nearly 2,000 delegates.

“So what do you think about President Biden’s first 100 days?” Romney begins to say, as the jeers intensified..

“Now you know me as a person who says what he thinks, and I don’t hide the fact that I wasn’t a fan of our last president’s character issues,” he said. 

This prompted more loud boos from the crowd.

He paused for a few seconds as the booing continued before asking the crowd: “Aren’t you embarrassed?”

No, they weren’t.

Later that same day, a resolution to censure Romney for voting to remove Trump from office was defeated.  But it was by a 798 to 711 vote, so a lot of attendees voted against the senator.

This is all according to the Utah Republican Party spokeswoman Lynda Cox.

About 1,900 delegates were in attendance at the start of the state organizing convention, held at the Maverik Center, Ms. Cox said.

The resolution to censure Romney was sponsored by Don Guymon, a party delegate from Davis County, and the censure cites Romney’s votes to remove Trump from office during both of his impeachment trials.

The resolution alleges that Romney “consistently publicly criticized” Trump and that those comments “not only hurt President Trump’s reelection but hurt other Republicans on the ballot.”

Romney was the lone Republican senator to break ranks in his vote to convict Trump of abuse of power in 2020; he was joined by six other Reps who voted earlier this year to remove Trump from office for inciting an insurrection after a mob overran the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Hours before the rioters descended on the Capitol, supporters of the former president heckled Romney at the Salt Lake City airport, calling him a “traitor.”

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, some called Romney a “traitor” and a “communist” as the delegates shouted their disapproval toward the stage. Shortly after Romney began, outgoing Utah GOP Chairman Derek Brown called on the crowd to “show respect.”

The weekend scene in Utah reflects a chasm within the Republican Party that has widened following Trump’s exit from office. Many in the GOP remain closely tied to Trump, even as some in the party question what role the former president should continue to play.

In a statement emailed to The Washington Post on Sunday, Don Guymon said that while it was “disappointing” that the resolution did not pass, he believed Romney “received a clear message that grass-roots Republicans represented by the state delegates are unhappy with his performance in the US Senate.”

During his remarks at the convention, Romney acknowledged that “I have a few folks who don’t like me terribly much, and I’m sorry about that.”

“But I express my mind as I believe is right, and I follow my conscience as I believe is right,” Romney said, which surprisingly prompted loud cheers.

The crowd settled as Romney continued. During his remarks, he challenged Biden and Democrats on the president’s big-spending proposals, plans to raise taxes and stimulus payments that he said provided people “more money for not working than they made when they were working.”

Romney called himself an “old-fashioned Republican” and told the crowd they can “boo all you like, but I’ve been a Republican all my life. My dad was a governor of Michigan; my dad worked for Republican candidates that he believed in. I worked for Republicans across the country, and if you don’t recall, I was the Republican nominee for president in 2012.”

Many in the crowd cheered as Romney implored: “Let me tell you something, if we divide our party, we’re going to be a losing party.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), another of the seven Republican senators who voted in favor of convicting Trump during his second impeachment trial, said Sunday she was “appalled” by members of the Utah GOP booing Romney and attempting to censure him.  “We Republicans need to remember that we are united by our fundamental principles, such as a belief in personal responsibility, individual freedom, opportunity, free markets, a strong national defense,” Collins said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Those are the principles that unite us. We are not a party that is led by just one person.”

As to Representative Cheney, the House Republicans are increasingly frustrated with Representative Cheney (R., Wyo.) amid an ongoing spat over her views on former President Trump.

The GOP lawmakers have warned that Cheney could lose her position as Chairwoman of the House Republican Conference.

“If a prerequisite for leading our conference is continuing to lie to our voters, then Liz is not the best fit,” Representative Anthony Gonzalez (R., Ohio) told The Hill. Gonzalez was one of ten GOP representatives, including Cheney, who voted to impeach Trump following the Capitol riot on January 6.

“Liz isn’t going to lie to people. Liz is going to say what she believes,” Gonzalez added. “She’s going to stand on principle. And if that’s going to be distracting for folks, she’s not the best fit. I wish that weren’t the case.”

Cheney has continued to criticize Trump since the Capitol riot. While House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) has labeled Trump the head of the Republican Party.  But Cheney told reporters last week that McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) were the leaders of the party.

Representative Jim Banks (R., Ind.), head of the Republican Study Committee, said Cheney’s comments were “sideline distractions” that could threaten GOP unity.

“I think a lot of us would like to see her join the team, be on the same team, same mission, the same focus. And at this point, that’s what many of us are questioning,” Banks told Axios last week.

“As we’re focused on unifying the Republican conference and our mission to win back the majority, she is focused on the past and proving a point,” one lawmaker told The Hill on condition of anonymity. “She is alienating herself from the conference, and I have to imagine if she doesn’t resign there will be a new vote in the near future and the result will be lopsided in the opposite direction of what it was before.”

In other words, both Romney and Cheney, who want to be regular Republican party members that refuse to lie to their party members, they could both be driven from the party for their true and proper criticisms of the former president.

Copyright G. Ater 2021