Republicans in the US have moved to censure two lawmakers in a significant step up of the drive to expunge dissidents seen as disloyal to former US President Donald Trump.
Africa Daily News, New York gathered that Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the only Republicans on the House committee investigating Trump’s role in last year’s US Capitol assault, are regarded as adversaries of the ex-president, who retains his iron grip on the party despite losing the 2020 election.
The party’s 168 national committee members, gathered for their winter meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, will vote to approve a formal censure of the pair.
Staunch Trump loyalists have been pushing for months for the two to be expelled, particularly as the investigation into the January 6 2021 insurrection has closed in on the former president’s inner circle.
The measure is expected to get a strong vote of approval from the committee.
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However, with Kinzinger retiring from Congress after the November midterm elections, and Cheney in danger of losing her Wyoming seat, the party leadership is said to be keen to put the issue behind them.
Republicans are hoping instead to focus on hitting President Joe Biden on his stalled domestic agenda, spiraling inflation and the stubborn pandemic ahead of the midterms.
Cheney responded to news of the censure by doubling down on her Trump criticism.
‘The leaders of the Republican Party have made themselves willing hostages to a man who admits he tried to overturn a presidential election and suggests he would pardon January 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy,’ she said in a statement Friday.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
