As the GOP looks to oust Rep. Liz Cheney (R) from her leadership position, the embattled lawmaker is vowing to not keep quiet after leading the charge that aimed to impeach President Donald Trump (R). With some GOP members looking for someone to replace Cheney, Elise Stefanik (R) has risen as a possible candidate. However, Stefanik has faced some opposition as Texas Rep. Chip Roy (R) directed a memo to every Republican office in the chamber arguing that Stefanik does not deserve to replace the Wyoming lawmaker.
A member of the Freedom Caucus, Roy has taken issues with Stefanik’s past moderate record, and he has chosen to air his grievance out as the GOP faces infighting concerning control of the party.
In the memo, Roy expresses that the GOP “must avoid putting in charge Republicans who campaign as Republicans but then vote for and advance the Democrats’ agenda once sworn in – that is, that we do not make the same mistake that we did in 2017.”
In the upcoming 2022 midterm election, GOP members that did not support President Trump have been threatened with being “primaried.” President Trump has vowed to campaign against them, but Florida Senator Rick Scott (R), the Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, announced that his goal was to support and help reelect incumbent lawmakers.
In an effort to elect “pro-Trump” Republicans, Roy asserted that “with all due respect to my friend, Elise Stefanik, let us contemplate the message Republican leadership is about to send by rushing to coronate a spokesperson whose voting record embodies much of what led to the 2018 ass-kicking we receiving by Democrats.”
Roy vehemently opposed the certification of President Joe Biden’s (D) 2020 win, and he initially argued that Rep. Cheney’s vote to impeach President Trump was a vote of conscience. However, Roy later retracted, arguing that Cheney had “forfeited the right to be chair of the Republican conference.”