GOP Senators Condemn RNC Censure Resolution - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
GOP Senators Condemn RNC Censure Resolution
by

So.

Here’s the headline at Politico:

Senate GOP backlash smacks RNC after Cheney-Kinzinger censure

The national party is supposed to be a unifying force. But its vote to censure two anti-Trump House Republicans is having the opposite effect. 

The story reports this, bold print for emphasis supplied:

Senate Republicans are not happy with the Republican National Committee.

In interviews on Monday evening, GOP senators lashed out at their own national party’s overwhelming vote to censure Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) for working on the House’s investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. They warned that alienating a portion of the party for being overly anti-Trump is not a political winner heading into the midterms, a sharp message from sitting members that goes far beyond criticism already aired by a handful of GOP pundits.

Got that? Republican senators are standing up for two rogue GOP members of Congress who have voluntarily joined the corrupt, authoritarian January 6 Committee, which is, in reality, a political lynch mob targeting former President Trump.

To leave no doubt about what they’re doing, see this remark from Congressman Kinzinger:

“every member of Congress, every member of the Senate, I believe, every member of the state house, all the way up and down, that calls themselves a Republican, should be forced to answer no other question but this one: Do you think the RNC censuring Kinzinger and Cheney was right or wrong?”

“It’s time to take sides,” Kinzinger said. “Everyone needs to be on record now.”

Easy to do.

In this corner I’m with the RNC.

Kentucky’s Sen. Rand Paul, as usual, gets it, saying that he would “include Liz Cheney and Kinzinger as basically Democrats now.”

The moment GOP House Leader Kevin McCarthy’s selection of Reps. Jim Jordan (Ohio) and Jim Banks (Ind.) for the January 6 Committee were blocked by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who then installed the Trump hating Cheney and Kinzinger, the die was cast.

This “investigation” has already come to its conclusion. It is 100 percent a stacked deck. The outcome is not in doubt. The object is to Get Trump, nothing less.

And along the way discredit the millions of Republican and other Trump-supporting Americans.

The mind boggles at the open authoritarianism exhibited by the Committee — openly aided and abetted by Cheney and Kinzinger.

There is nothing, say again nothing, “Republican” about issuing subpoenas for over 100 American citizens, demanding of AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile every last private email, text, and phone call record. There is nothing “Republican” about publicizing the private communications of members of the media in a stark violation of the First Amendment.

Note well that the RNC resolution passed the Resolutions Committee unanimously. The Hill reported this:

The resolution that censured Cheney and Kinzinger said the two lawmakers are participating in “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse” by sitting on the Jan. 6 panel, which was convened last year by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

The resolution adds the RNC “shall immediately cease any and all support of” both lawmakers “as members of the Republican Party for their behavior which has been destructive to the institution of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Republican Party and our republic, and is inconsistent with the position of the Conference.”

That Republican senators would support Cheney and Kinzinger’s actions on this committee is appalling. By definition it means that they have no problem with the Committee’s corruption and authoritarianism. Said RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel:
Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger crossed a line. They chose to join Nancy Pelosi in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse that had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol. That’s why Republican National Committee members and myself overwhelmingly support this resolution.
Do Kentucky senator and Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Whip John Thune (S.D.), Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, Maine Sen. Susan Collins, North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, and other GOP senators really support AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile being subpoenaed for all the private electronic communications of over 100 American citizens? Instead of opposing this outright authoritarian behavior, Romney deliberately misrepresents what the censure resolution meant, saying,
A very unfortunate decision by the RNC and a very unfortunate statement put out as well. Nothing could be further from the truth than to consider the attack on the seat of democracy as legitimate political discourse.

Hello? No, senator. The RNC was not saying that the violence at the Capitol was “legitimate political discourse.” That’s both absurd and a deliberate misrepresentation of what was said by the RNC. The resolution was referring to the tens of thousands — say again tens of thousands — of Americans who, in the words of President Trump to them that day, went quite “peacefully and patriotically” to protest, and did exactly that.

McDaniel took time out to discuss the media treatment of the resolution over there at Townhall, saying this:

As I have repeatedly stated, violence is not legitimate political discourse — whether in the U.S. Capitol or in Democrat-run cities across the country — and neither is abusing Congress’ investigatory powers for political gain. Media outlets pretending that the RNC believes otherwise are doing so in bad faith, and their lies should be called out for the cheap political stunts they are.
McDaniel also gave a quite specific example of how the abuse of authority with these Committee subpoenas works:
This includes individuals like one of the RNC’s members who was subpoenaed because, weeks before January 6th, she served as an alternate elector pending the outcome of ongoing lawsuits — an action with clear legal precedent which Democrats themselves have done in the past. Now she could face costly legal bills even though she was nowhere near the Capitol on January 6th and had nothing to do with the violence that occurred.

That is appalling. And to think Republican senators are turning their backs on this behavior from Cheney, Kinzinger, and the Committee is even more appalling.

The real problem here is that there are Republican senators who apparently support the corruption and authoritarianism of Cheney and Kinzinger and the Democrats running this Stalinesque show trial.

There is nothing “Republican” about that.

Nothing.

And, again, RNC chair Ronna McDaniel and the RNC members themselves should be congratulated for standing up for Republican principle.

Jeffrey Lord
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Jeffrey Lord, a contributing editor to The American Spectator, is a former aide to Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp. An author and former CNN commentator, he writes from Pennsylvania at jlpa1@aol.com. His new book, Swamp Wars: Donald Trump and The New American Populism vs. The Old Order, is now out from Bombardier Books.
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