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Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), one of only two GOP members of the House Committee investigating January 6, says that she is willing to risk censure from those in her own party in order to do what she feels is right.
Cheney, one of the few Republicans willing to speak out publicly against former President Donald Trump, has drawn the ire of the GOP in recent months for her role on the committee. She was even ousted as an official member of the Wyoming Republican Party last November following her continuing criticism of Trump.
As a result, the Republican National Committee (RNC) on Thursday advanced a unanimous resolution that would formally censure both Cheney and Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), the other Republican on the January 6 Committee.
The resolution will be up in front of the full RNC body on Friday. However, Cheney, who serves as vice-chair of the January 6 Committee, made it clear that she was willing to be censured by her party in order to get to the bottom of the January 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol.
"If the price of being willing to tell the truth and get to the bottom of what happened on January 6 ... is a censure, then I am absolutely going to continue to stand up for what I know is right," Cheney told reporters at the Capitol on Thursday.
"I think that it is a sad day for the party of Lincoln that that's where we are," she continued.
Cheney's comments seem to fall in line with her ongoing viewpoint regarding the former president. In an interview with NBC Nightly News that aired this past Monday, Cheney stated that "[Trump] uses the same language that he knows caused the January 6 violence, and I think that it tells us that he clearly would do this all again if he were given the chance."
"That just simply can't be who we are as Americans, it can't be who we are as Republicans," Cheney continued.
The sentiment of following one's conscience was echoed by Kinzinger's office Thursday following the RNC's decision.
"[The RNC] would be better served by focusing on 2022 rather than an unprecedented and shortsighted effort to purge two lifelong Republicans for simply telling the truth and upholding their oaths of office," Kinzinger's spokesperson, Maura Gillespie, told CNN.
Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, continues to push for consequences for former President Trump, who she has claimed directly influenced the events of January 6. She has used some of the most harsh language that has been seen by Republican House members in referring to the actions of the former president.
Cheney has also lambasted the GOP for sticking behind Trump after he left office.
"The leaders of the Republican Party have made themselves willing hostages to a man who admits he tried to overturn a presidential election," Cheney tweeted Thursday evening. "I'm a constitutional conservative and I do not recognize those in my party who have abandoned the Constitution to embrace Donald Trump. History will be their judge."
It remains to be seen what actions would follow if Cheney and Kinzinger do end up being censured.
While a censure itself is just a public condemnation, with no real legislative effect, the previous version of the RNC's resolution had called for the pair to be expelled from the GOP's congressional caucus, the House Republican Conference.
However, this was changed at the last minute prior to the vote after some Republican lawmakers reportedly felt that expulsion from the caucus was a step too far in punishing their colleagues.
Newsweek has reached out to Representative Cheney's office for comment.
