Party leaders, meanwhile, will consider resuming Greene, who spent several hours in a meeting with Republican leader Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday night. There is pressure from Democrats and Republicans of the Senate that she should lose committee assignments due to the offensive social media activity before electing her office as her representative in just one month.
The challenges facing Cheney and Greene include the fierce battle for control of the GOP between orthodox conservatives and pro-Trump radicals who are seen by the institution as a ‘cancer’ and ‘crazy weed’.
Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, is the epitome of the old-school, ultra-conservative but internationalist Republican Party that despises Trump’s assault on democracy. Greene is a proponent of the QAnon conspiracy theory and is a wild-edge avatar welcomed by Trump into the GOP.
No sign of regret from Greene
The volatile state of the GOP is evident from the way Cheney has received far more public criticism from her colleagues in the House than Greene, a proponent of an additional conspiracy theory based on unfounded allegations that Democratic leaders are pedophiles.
Top GOP senators, such as minority leaders Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, defended Cheney. But with the emphasis on her increasing alienation from the GOP House caucus, a Trump acolith, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, even traveled to Wyoming last week to rally against her and begin an effort to end her career. The visit highlighted how Trump’s loyal base still dictates the direction of the party, even with the former president out of the White House and as some GOP power players hope his influence will disappear.
Tension is likely to increase due to accusation
The dispute that is tearing the House GOP apart – and alienating its members from their brethren in the Senate – comes at a particularly ridiculous moment with the second Trump indictment set to begin in the Senate next week.
The former president’s team indicated on Tuesday that they again intend to highlight Trump’s dangerous lies about a stolen election, while Democrats provide graphic evidence of his uprising that will make GOP senators uncomfortable.
The outcome of the drama in which Cheney and Greene are involved is skirmishes in the larger search for the IDP’s identity that will shape the run – up to the mid – term matches next year and will weigh on the IDP’s chances of nominating candidates who can help reclaiming Congress – an important consideration for Biden’s presidency.
The battle that is breaking out at the Republican Party every day is fundamentally the one that ignited the moment when Trump declared his candidacy for president in 2015 and directed the GOP on a wild populist, nationalist ride.
This was exacerbated by a generation of pro-Trump figures who were inspired to present him to Congress through his success.
Thune argued Tuesday that “the House of Republicans will have to decide who they want to be.”
‘Do they want to be the party of limited government and fiscal responsibility, free markets, peace through power and pro-life, or do they want to be the party of conspiracy theories and QAnon, and I think that is the decision they have faced, said Thune.
Another mainstream Republican, the party’s 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney – who is now an outcast cut off by the Trump tide – also weighed.
“I think our long history as a party has shown that it’s important that we separate ourselves from the people who are the crazy weeds,” the Utah senator said. “If we do not do that, our opposition is trying to brand us with their image and their position, which is detrimental to any party that does not.”
GOP is hostage to its most radical elements
The challenge for the broader Republican Party, however, is that there is ample evidence that the party’s activist base is not excited about small government, debt reduction, globalization, and a hawkish foreign policy – four pillars of the Republican Party for decades between Ronald Reagan and Trump.
“We need to be aware that Marjorie Taylor Greene has a very wide following in this country,” said Gabriel Sterling, one of the Republican election officials, who stands firm against Trump’s attempt to steal the election in Georgia.
“I mean, she’s raised millions of dollars based on things she’s said and sometimes … being attacked by the ‘quote’ elites’ just drives her up in terms of the appreciation she has by many, many people. “Sterling told CNN’s Kate Bolduan on Tuesday.
In many ways, this is a rift that the Republican Party has brought to Washington over itself, and it is all the more destabilizing than the influx of radical lawmakers brought to Washington by the Tea Party uprising and the New Gingrich Republican Revolution that conquered the House in 1994. .
Four years of reconciliation with Trump’s vicious character, unconstitutional seizures of power and an appeal to basic instincts – in a Faustian treaty delivered by a Conservative high court – have the extremists who found inspiration in the former president. .
McConnell now turns against the tough Trumpists like the Greene and Capitol Hill insurgents. But his failure to condemn the former president’s assaults on the integrity of the election for weeks built up the crazy atmosphere he exploited when he incited the January 6 uprising.
The strength of the pro-Trump faction in the GOP – at a time when more traditional conservatives like McConnell want to get rid of his influence – is underlined by the fact that a majority of Republicans in the House voted not to win Biden’s election victory to confirm. about election fraud lies.
And even in the Senate, 45 Republicans – including McConnell – voted to support Senator Rand Paul’s attempt to have the indictment, which begins next week, declared unconstitutional.
The mystery for the broader IDP is that the road to fundraising wealth, fame and primary success lies in Trump’s sponsorship. McCarthy’s pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to meet the former president last week shows that he believes his hope of winning the House is closer to Greene’s profession than Cheney.
Senate Republicans, however, have long memories of previous races wasted by extremist candidates. And Trump’s political style cost the party just two by-elections in Georgia that the Senate handed over to Democrats.
“Whose side do I want to be on? Liz Cheney or Marjorie Taylor Greene?” Former Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, who was expelled from the party himself for his opposition to the Trump uprising, asked Wolf Blitzer on ‘The Situation Room’ to face the growing electoral framework ungovernable IDP faces.
“Where do you think the party is likely to grow more or where do I want to be as an elected official? It’s pretty sharp and that’s what the party is currently facing.”