Gaetz Calls on McCarthy for Vote on Cheney

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz railed against fellow House Republican Liz Cheney on Thursday for her vote to impeach former President Donald Trump, calling her ''soulless'' at a rally in her home state of Wyoming and later demanding House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy hold a vote to oust her from her leadership position.

''Kevin McCarthy needs to hold a vote on Liz Cheney, and if he doesn’t, the Republican conference is a total joke,'' Gaetz said on the Fox News Channel. ''More than half of the Republican conference has said that this person does not speak for us. Now, you and I both know the Republicans basically have no power in Washington, D.C. ,right now.

''The only power we have is to communicate and if the person we’ve designated to communicate for us as the conference chair doesn’t have the support of the majority of the conference, it is a total fiction you’ve created regarding the entire structure of leadership.''

Cheney, the third-ranking member of the House Republicans as conference chairwoman, was the highest profile of 10 Republicans who voted with every Democrat to impeach Trump a second time, claiming his speech to a rally of supporters on Jan. 6 was ''incitement to insurrection'' when supposedly some of the attendees breached the U.S. Capitol.

A poll released Wednesday showed 70% of all Wyoming voters believe any impeachment trial of Trump would be unconstitutional, 63% are less likely to vote for Cheney because of her vote, 85% of Wyoming Republicans disapprove of her vote and 73% of Wyoming Republicans want her removed from her leadership post.

Gaetz, 38, a third-term congressman who represents Florida’s 1^st Congressional District which encompasses a large swath of the panhandle, earlier in the day appeared at a rally in Cheyenne, Wyoming, the state capital, to implore the crowd to defeat Cheney in next year’s primary.

''You have the power to defeat Liz Cheney in this upcoming election, and Wyoming will bring Washington to its knees,'' Gaetz said. "A nation that sends its best to go fight in the worst places in the world should not send its worst to be representatives in the United States Congress."

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