Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel said Thursday she considers Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., a member of the party even after the Wyoming GOP voted to no longer recognize the Republican lawmaker.
At a Christian Science Monitor breakfast in Washington, D.C., McDaniel said, "Obviously she's still a Republican."
"But I get from a state party standpoint when you have a congressperson or a senator who's not supporting your state party, who's not talking about electing Republicans up and down the ballot," she said.
"A state party is the most grassroots body that the state has. These are people who are running in their district committee, and they're going to their county convention and they're getting on their state committee, and they really represent where the party is in their state."
"So that was their choice to do that and then the voters will make a choice in the primary in Wyoming," she said, adding she wished Cheney was talking about electing Republicans more.
McDaniel’s remarks follow the Wyoming Republican Party central committee voting 31-29 this week to no longer recognize Cheney as a member of the party.
The vote by the state party central committee followed votes by local GOP officials in about one-third of Wyoming's 23 counties to no longer recognize Cheney as a Republican.
Cheney’s office hit back in a statement saying it was "laughable to suggest Liz is anything but a committed conservative Republican," The Hill reported.
"She is bound by her oath to the Constitution. Sadly, a portion of the Wyoming GOP leadership has abandoned that fundamental principle, and instead allowed themselves to be held hostage to the lies of a dangerous and irrational man," said Jeremy Adler, a Cheney spokesman, The Hill reported.
Cheney has been under fire from the GOP after she voted to impeach former President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — and became one of the party's most outspoken critics of the former president and his claims of election fraud.
She is 1 of 2 Republicans serving on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.
She's also pushed back at fellow party members on other issues, including Thursday when she was 1 of 2 Republicans to vote in favor of censuring Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., for a photoshopped anime video that depicts him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
Cheney is facing four Republican challengers in the GOP primary for her seat, The Hill reported, including Wyoming lawyer Harriet Hageman, who has been endorsed by Trump.
Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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