Donald Trump is about to claim another head of a Republican who didn't bow to him, because the only thing that matters to Republicans is loyalty to Dear Leader.
Rep. Fred Upton (Mich.), one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Trump in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, revealed on Sunday that he has not yet decided if he will run for reelection in 2022.
Asked by co-host Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union” if he is committed to running for another term next year, Upton said he is unsure because redistricting is still underway in Michigan.
“Well, we don't know what our districts look like yet,” Upton said.
“We're in the midst of looking at maps. Michigan loses a seat. We will evaluate everything probably before the end of the year in terms of making our own decision. We have never made a decision more than a year out,” he added.
If Upton ultimately decides not to run for reelection next year, he will be the third GOP lawmaker who voted for Trump’s second impeachment to announce their retirement this year.
Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio) declared in September that he would not seek a third term in Congress, and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) revealed last month that he will not run for reelection when his term expires.
Gonzalez in a statement said it is “clear that the best path for our family is not to seek re-election next fall,” but added that the “current state of our politics, especially many of the toxic dynamics inside our own party, is a significant factor in my decision.”
Kinzinger, in a video announcing his retirement, recalled a moment from his first campaign when he told himself, “If I ever thought it was time to move on from Congress, I would,” adding, “That time is now.”
The Illinois Republican also cited deep political divides in Washington.
“In this day, to prevail or survive, you must belong to a tribe. Our political parties only survive by appealing to the most motivated and the most extreme elements within it. And the price tag to power has skyrocketed, and fear and distrust has served as an effective strategy to meet that cost,” Kinzinger said.
“Dehumanizing each other has become the norm. We’ve taken it from social media to the streets. We’ve allowed leaders to reach power selling the false premise that strength comes from degrading others and dehumanizing those that look, act or think differently than we do. As a country, we’ve fallen for those lies, and now we face a poisoned country filled with outrage blinding our ability to reach real strength,” he added.
There's a reason why I say there's no good Republicans left, because not only are the ones who oppose Trump like Upton being eliminated, but the ones on the way out like Kinzinger still blame both sides, as if Democrats are somehow as awful as the GOP right now.
"Just enough bravery to stick your head up to get it chopped off" isn't a virtue, folks.
And speaking of getting their heads chopped off, GOP Rep. Liz Cheney needs to check her neck.
The Wyoming Republican Party will no longer recognize Liz Cheney as a member of the GOP in its second formal rebuke for her criticism of former President Donald Trump.
The 31-29 vote Saturday in Buffalo, Wyoming, by the state party central committee followed votes by local GOP officials in about one-third of Wyoming’s 23 counties to no longer recognize Cheney as a Republican.
In February, the Wyoming GOP central committee voted overwhelmingly to censure Cheney, Wyoming’s lone U.S. representative, for voting to impeach Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Cheney has described her vote to impeach Trump as an act of conscience in defense of the Constitution. Trump “incited the mob” and “lit the flame” of that day’s events, Cheney said after the attack.
It’s “laughable” for anybody to suggest Cheney isn’t a “conservative Republican,” Cheney spokesman Jeremy Adler said by text message Monday.
“She is bound by her oath to the Constitution. Sadly a portion of the Wyoming GOP leadership has abandoned that fundamental principle and instead allowed themselves to be held hostage to the lies of a dangerous and irrational man,” Adler added.
Cheney is now facing at least four Republican opponents in the 2022 primary including Cheyenne attorney Harriet Hageman, whom Trump has endorsed. Hageman in a statement called the latest state GOP central committee vote “fitting,” the Casper Star-Tribune reported.
“Liz Cheney stopped recognizing what Wyomingites care about a long time ago. When she launched her war against President Trump, she completely broke with where we are as a state,” Hageman said.
The vote was symbolic, and I don't think Kevin McCarthy would reject her from the GOP Caucus, but I don't see how Cheney survives the primary. She could always pull a Lisa Murkowski and run as an independent, but I don't know enough about Wyoming politics to know if that would open the door for a Democrat.
It's going to be messy either way.
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