Former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney on Sunday blamed California Rep. Kevin McCarthy for his own ouster as speaker of the House, forced out by a small contingent of disgruntled fellow Republicans.
Ms. Cheney, who lost reelection last year after losing her GOP primary to Trump-backed Rep. Harriet Hageman, argued Mr. McCarthy’s handling of the former president and the 2021 Capitol riot enabled his own ouster by hardliners in the party.
“What we have seen is a result of really the leadership decisions that Kevin McCarthy made all the way back after the 2020 election, and certainly after January 6, and looking the other way in the face of the kind of assault on our democracy that we have seen from Donald Trump and his allies in the House,” Ms. Cheney said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
The House has been without a speaker since Oct. 3 and is unable to conduct legislative business and pass laws, escalating pressure among Republicans to elect a new leader. Nearly a dozen Republicans have thrown their hat into the race after House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan dropped out last week.
Ms. Cheney said former President Trump elevated Mr. McCarthy’s hardline opponents, “some of whom are white supremacists, some of whom are antisemitic, a number of whom were involved directly in the attempt to seize power and overturn the election.”
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