Cheney says she will not resign from her position after Wyoming Republican Party censure

Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney said Sunday she will not resign despite being censured by her state Republican Party over her vote to impeach former President Donald Trump.

“I’m not (going to resign) Chris,” Cheney, the No. 3 Republican in the US House of Representatives, told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.” “And look, I think people all across Wyoming understand and recognize that our most important duty is to the Constitution, and as I’ve explained and will continue to explain to supporters all across this state, voters all across this state, the oath that I took to the Constitution compelled me to vote for impeachment, and it doesn’t bend to partisanship. It doesn’t bend to political pressure. It’s the most important oath that we take. And so I will stand by that, and I will continue to fight for all the issues that matter to us all cross Wyoming.”

The Wyoming Republican Party’s motion to censure Cheney, who easily survived a House Republican Conference vote to remain in her leadership spot last week, called for her to “immediately” resign. The formal censure is the latest example of a state GOP punishing lawmakers who have bucked Trump.

The state party also intends to “withhold any future political funding” from her, the motion said. And it called on Cheney to repay donations to her 2020 campaign from the state GOP and any county Republican Parties.

Asked specifically Sunday about the censure, Cheney said the Wyoming Republican Party is “mistaken.”

“I think you have to read the language of the censure partly, you know I think people in the party are mistaken, they believe that BLM and Antifa were behind what happened at the Capitol, that’s just simply not the case,” she said.

The Republican congresswoman has faced intense backlash from Trump loyalists for her vote last month to impeach Trump for “incitement of insurrection,” following the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. In a statement before she cast her vote, Cheney said Trump “summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack.”

“There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution,” she said at the time.

House Republicans last week voted 145 to 61 in favor of keeping Cheney on as conference chair after she defended her support for impeachment during a contentious closed-door conference meeting.

Cheney, who was one of just 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for a second time, previously told CNN she does not regret her impeachment vote. “Absolutely not,” she said.

The other nine lawmakers have also faced a wave of anger at home, with Republican officials, donors and voters condemning their votes and primary challengers launching their campaigns early. Last week, the South Carolina Republican Party voted to formally censure Rep. Tom Rice, who delivered one of the most surprising votes for impeachment.