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A prominent Missouri newspaper took aim at the Republican National Committee's censure of Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger on Sunday, arguing that the sanction "confirms that the GOP no longer stands for anything beyond blind allegiance to the former president who fomented the violence" on January 6.
"When future historians seek to pinpoint exactly when it was that the Republican Party stopped being a legitimate political entity promoting a coherent set of principles and was transformed fully into a cult of personality organized around a would-be autocrat, Feb. 4, 2022, might be in contention," wrote the editorial board of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
On Friday, the RNC voted to censure Cheney, of Wyoming, and Kinzinger, of Illinois— the only Republicans who sit on the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The censure resolution accused the two legislators of "participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse, and they are both utilizing their past professed political affiliation to mask Democrat abuse of prosecutorial power for partisan purposes."
The editorial included comments from Republican John Danforth, who served Missouri in the U.S. Senate between 1977 and 1995. Danforth told the paper that the language in the resolution "should make all real Republicans sick."
"It is now the official position of the Republican Party that the storming of the Capitol, including attacks on police officers, physical intimidation of members of Congress and destruction of government property, is 'legitimate political discourse.'... It is a complete reversal of what we always have been and should be," Danforth stated.
Other prominent Republicans who have also spoken against the RNC's censure, among them Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy and Utah Senator Mitt Romney.
"What happened on January 6, 2021 was an effort to overturn a lawful election resulting in violence and destruction at the Capitol. We must not legitimize those actions which resulted in loss of life and we must learn from that horrible event so history does not repeat itself...to suggest it was 'legitimate political discourse' is just wrong,"Murkowski stated on Saturday.
The newspaper argued that the House select committee investigating the attack has "an urgent mandate" to find the facts about "the first-ever significant attempt from within to violently overturn the result of an American presidential election."
The editorial board praised Cheney and Kinzinger for their involvement with the panel, stating that their decision "to participate in this important endeavor, defying their own party's intransigence, was a display of selfless patriotism."
The RNC did not immediately respond to Newsweek's request for comment on Sunday afternoon.
About the writer
Xander Landen is a Newsweek weekend reporter. His focus is often U.S. politics, but he frequently covers other issues including ... Read more