GOP congressman cautions against replacing Cheney with Stefanik

Washington — In a sign of the simmering tension among House Republicans over the future of the party, a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus cautioned against electing Congresswoman Elise Stefanik to replace Congresswoman Liz Cheney as GOP conference chair. House Republicans will vote on whether to eject Cheney from her position on Wednesday, and Stefanik is seen as her likely successor.

In a memo to fellow House Republicans, Congressman Chip Roy of Texas said that the party was "falling prey to the high drama of swamp politics" with the high-profile fight to oust Cheney. The Wyoming congresswoman has drawn the ire of Republicans for her repeated criticism of former President Donald Trump, as well as her insistence that GOP members should not downplay the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6 by a mob of Trump supporters. Cheney survived an effort to oust her after she voted to impeach Mr. Trump in January. "This is actually why Liz Cheney will lose her job as Chair this week: she forfeited her ability to be our spokesperson by pulling us into distraction," Roy argued in his memo, which was first reported by Politico. "From a position specifically designed to speak for all of us, she has been looking backwards while repeatedly and unhelpfully engaging in personal attacks and finger-wagging towards President Trump rather than leading the conference forward with a unifying message both on elections and more broadly."