COLORADO SPRINGS — The demotion of Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney happened with a closed-door vote by House Republicans. Three of Colorado's seven representatives in the nation’s capital are Republican.
Cheney, the former third-highest ranking member of the Republican caucus, is an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump. She was one of 10 Republican House members to vote to impeach former President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Representative Doug Lamborn did specifically say how he voted.
In a release, he said, ” Today’s vote was not about her impeachment vote, it was about the direction and future of the Republican conference and supporting the will of our voters.”
Representative Lauren Boebert is from the Western Slope of Colorado, but Pueblo is included in her large district. The vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump voted to remove Cheney from her leadership position.
Liz Cheney is the GOP of the past. We are not going back.
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) May 12, 2021
Colorado 4th Congressional District Representative, Ken Buck did not vote to remove Cheney. “Liz Cheney was canceled for speaking her mind,” said Buck.
Since that vote, Cheney has doubled down on her insistence that Republicans break away from Trump’s influence, despite his continued popularity within the party. She’s one of the few party members who has maintained that Trump’s persistent false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election is a lie.
"Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar," Cheney said Tuesday in her speech from the House floor. "I will not participate in that. I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former President's crusade to undermine our democracy."
Other Republican leaders, like House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, say Cheney’s comments are undermining the party’s attempts to build opposition to the Biden administration’s agenda.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-New York, is one of the top candidates to replace Cheney as a conference chair. A one-time moderate Republican who has risen to power in the party by pivoting to embrace Trump’s policies and rhetoric.
