We’ve been reporting how Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) literally blew up her career over her desire to take down President Donald Trump, doing everything from attacking her colleagues to attacking Fox News in the process.
She was at it again today, going after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and her replacement as the GOP House Conference Chair, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY). Media hasn’t been shy about featuring her on all the shows, as she spreads all kinds of attacks against her colleagues — and Trump.
This is why the Republican leadership dumped her, because she wasn’t able to focus on dealing with Joe Biden; she was too wrapped up in continuing to go after Trump. But in return, she’s now attacking the GOP leadership, her successor, and trying to burn them in retribution.
If she thinks this is giving her a future in the Republican Party, she may want to check the new poll out from CBS News. They polled people who identify as Republicans about her removal, and the poll shows the continued importance of Trump to the future of the party.
*New* CBS News Poll
80% of Republicans who have heard about Cheney’s removal from leadership agree with it, just 20% disagree with it. https://t.co/ffaQ7LUh25 pic.twitter.com/VqR98qSeDA— CBS News Poll (@CBSNewsPoll) May 16, 2021
Eighty percent of Republicans agreed with the vote to remove Cheney. Of that group, their various reasons included her being “off-message, unsupportive of Mr. Trump, and that she’s wrong about the 2020 presidential election.” Interestingly, even the twenty percent that didn’t agree said they were less likely to vote in Republican primaries, according to CBS, making them even less likely to be an important factor.
The poll also showed, by big numbers, that Republicans want the party to follow Trump’s example on issues like the economy (89%), immigration (88%), leadership (80%) and how to treat the media (77%). Sixty-six percent said being loyal to Trump was important, 33% said it wasn’t important. Sixty-seven percent said they didn’t believe that Joe Biden was the legitimate winner of the election. While concerns about what happened in the 2020 election were important, it was most important to be focused on the right policies — that important legislation and agreeing on economic policy was more important.
The poll was conducted of 951 Republicans or “Republican-leaners” in the U.S. by YouGov between May 12-14.
This should be a big, flashing signal to Cheney and to the Never Trump folks, that if they think they’re sweeping Trump to the side, the Republican base isn’t going to have that. That they have no future in the party; put a fork in them.
But perhaps, even more than that, it’s showing that Republican voters want the party to continue on the path that Trump started on the economy, on immigration, and pushing the issues they care about. They don’t want to veer off that path by distractions, whether those distractions are from Democrats or Liz Cheney.
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