House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters last week, “If you’re sitting here at a retreat that’s focused on policy, focused on the future of making American next-century, and you’re talking about something else, you’re not being productive.”
It appears that Rep. Cheney wasn’t being productive and party leaders have had enough. Rep. Steve Scalise, the minority whip, and Jim Banks chairman of the Republican Study Committee both voiced their concerns with Cheney.
Banks was more polite but Scalise said that Cheney is “an unwelcome distraction.”
“This idea that you just disregard President Trump is not where we are, and, frankly, he has a lot to offer still,” added Scalise.
The comments come after Cheney told reporters during several interviews that anyone who challenged the 2020 election results should be disqualified from a presidential campaign in 2024.
Banks believes that Cheney’s rhetoric is detracting from unifying the party on how to beat the Democrats in 2022.
“Her lack of focus on that, while being focused on other things, and proving her point, was an unwelcome distraction,” Banks said. “The sort of sideline distractions at the GOP retreat will only serve to hold us back from being focused on that nearly unanimous goal we have as a conference.”
Banks stated he isn’t sure if Cheney will keep her number three status as the GOP conference chair and put the ball in her court.
“That’s up to her,” he added. “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.”
Cheney lost the trust of Republicans when she voted to impeach President Trump after the incursion at the Capitol. From that point on, Cheyney has been at odds with the party using her impeachment vote to raise her profile among the Washington elite.
However, Cheney has gone too far and party leaders have had enough.
