Republican leaders voted to formally censure Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) on Friday as punishment for sitting on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The censure resolution also characterized the attack, which left at least seven people dead in connection with the violence, as “legitimate political discourse.”
The Republican National Committee’s 168 members opted by voice vote to rebuke the two lawmakers, who are outspoken against former President Donald Trump and his baseless claims about a stolen 2020 election.
Cheney and Kinzinger were among the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 attack. They are the only two Republicans on the investigating House select committee.
The resolution, passed at an RNC meeting in Salt Lake City, declares the GOP will “cease any and all support” for Cheney and Kinzinger as members of the Republican Party. But it stops short of expelling them.
The measure chastises the two lawmakers for “participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse” for their roles investigating the riot.
In a tweet Thursday night, Cheney — who’s running for re-election despite facing a Trump-backed primary challenger — said: “The leaders of the Republican Party have made themselves willing hostages to a man who admits he tried to overturn a presidential election and suggests he would pardon Jan. 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy.”
Kinzinger, who has opted not to run again, tweeted Thursday that he’s “now even more committed to fighting conspiracies and lies.”
“I’ve been a member of the Republican Party long before Donald Trump entered the field. My values and core beliefs remain the same and have not wavered,” he said in a statement.
In an unprecedented move, the national party also plans to financially support Cheney’s primary opponent, Harriet Hageman. Cheney still managed to outraise Hageman by millions of dollars in the last fundraising cycle.
