During his appearance on Steve Bannon’s podcast earlier on Wednesday, Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz declared, confidently that he has the votes in the Republican caucus to remove Liz Cheney as Conference Chair after she voted to impeach Donald Trump.
“My concern is that though today, we have the votes to remove Liz Cheney, somehow the establishment’s going to find a way to kick the question, avoid a vote,” Gaetz said.
But, there was a vote, and Gaetz was wrong. During a secret vote on Wednesday the House Republicans voted overwhelmingly to side with Cheney. 145 voted for her to stay as Republican Conference Chair while 61 voted to remove her from the post.
Last week, Gaetz went to Wyoming to campaign against Cheney after her impeachment vote.
“Defeat Liz Cheney in this upcoming election,” Gaetz said, “and Wyoming will bring Washington to its knees. How can you call yourself a representative when you don’t represent the will of the people?”
The vote to keep Cheney in her position came after an hours-long closed door meeting during which Cheney refused to apologize for her vote to hold Trump accountable for inciting an insurrection against the US government.
