'destructive lies'
Cheney was reportedly booed during speech before leadership ouster
Republicans have officially stripped Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) of her House leadership position — and they reportedly booed her remarks prior to the vote.
House Republicans on Wednesday voted to oust Cheney from her position as chair of the House Republican Conference after she was critical of former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Cheney addressed the conference prior to the voice vote and told lawmakers, "If you want leaders who will enable and spread his destructive lies, I'm not your person, you have plenty of others to choose from," Politico reports. "That will be their legacy."
But The New York Times reports that Cheney's "defiant final speech" drew "boos from her colleagues." The boos came as she criticized Trump during her opening remarks, saying, "We cannot let the former president drag us backward and make us complicit in his efforts to unravel our democracy," CNN reports. Still, Cheney doubled down after the vote, vowing to prevent another Trump term.
"I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the oval office," she said.
Prior to Wednesday's vote, The Washington Post reported that Cheney was looking to ramp up her efforts to take on Trump, aiming to "become an even more influential political figure capable of weakening former president Trump's hold on their party."