TOPLINE
Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.) on Friday suggested Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) could win back the support of her colleagues and retain her position as chair of the House Republican conference if only she would “apologize” for criticizing Trump and vow to self-censor going forward.
In a local radio interview, Mooney, a member of the right-wing Freedom Caucus, indicated he is undecided about Cheney’s likely ouster chair, telling host Hoppy Kercheval he wants to “hear what she has to say.”
Mooney added Cheney, who has publicly broken with other party leaders in arguing Trump has no role in the future of the GOP, has “the right to apologize for her criticisms of Trump,” which he called “unfair.”
Mooney also suggested Cheney “say she won’t do it anymore,” getting at the heart of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s claim that GOP lawmakers’ frustrations with Cheney center on her ability to “carry out the message.”
Though Trump-endorsed Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) is the unopposed front-runner to succeed Cheney, Mooney did not mention her by name, instead saying he’d “like to see a conservative in there,” echoing statements from other Freedom Caucus members critical of Stefanik.
Forbes has reached out to Cheney’s office for comment.
CRUCIAL QUOTE
“We shouldn’t be infighting. Every time she takes a shot at Trump, it causes all this infighting. So she needs to stop, obviously,” Mooney said. However, he predicted, “I don’t think she’s going to.”
CHIEF CRITIC
“While embracing or ignoring Trump’s statements might seem attractive to some for fundraising and political purposes, that approach will do profound long-term damage to our party and our country,” Cheney wrote in a Washington Post op-ed on Wednesday.
TANGENT
Rather than keeping silent on the issue, former President Donald Trump has continued a steady drumbeat of false election fraud claims since leaving office and forced, putting out a statement on Friday calling for Michigan legislators to be “run out of office” if they don’t investigate his baseless complaints about an election night ballot “dump.”
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
House Republicans are expected to meet Wednesday to vote on Cheney’s ouster, though the vote on her replacement may come later on.