Senate

Romney defends Cheney: She ‘refuses to lie’

by Jordain Carney 05/04/21 02:54 PM ET

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) is coming to the defense of Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) amid a high-profile feud with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) that is sparking fresh questions about her future in GOP leadership.

“Every person of conscience draws a line beyond which they will not go: Liz Cheney refuses to lie,” Romney tweeted on Tuesday about the No. 3 House Republican.

“As one of my Republican Senate colleagues said to me following my impeachment vote: ‘I wouldn’t want to be a member of a group that punished someone for following their conscience,'” he added.

Cheney is coming under new, intense scrutiny over her recent criticism of fellow Republicans. That includes her response to a statement from former President Trump earlier this week in which she said that his claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen is the “big lie.”

Cheney is one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, when a pro-Trump mob breached the building.

She and McCarthy are taking fundamentally different approaches to both the direction of the party and how to handle the former president. Cheney is not shying away from calling out Trump’s false election claims, while McCarthy is actively trying to court Trump’s favor with his eye on 2022 and winning the Speaker’s gavel.

After days of increasingly public drama, McCarthy told “Fox & Friends” that he had “heard from members concerned about her ability to carry out the job as conference chair” — remarks widely viewed as signaling he won’t be coming to Cheney’s defense in another attempt to oust her from her leadership position.

He was also overheard on a hot mic saying he has “had it” with Cheney and had “lost confidence” in the Wyoming Republican and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Romney isn’t the only GOP senator who has defended Cheney. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) also defended her during a Sunday show interview over the weekend.

Both Romney and Collins voted to convict Trump at the end of his second impeachment trial earlier this year.

Romney, the party’s 2012 presidential nominee, has been one of the few Senate Republicans most willing to criticize Trump. He was the only Republican to vote to convict on one of the articles of impeachment during Trump’s Senate trial in 2020.