It is reported that it took just 16 minutes for the Republicans in the US House of Representatives to remove Elizebeth Cheney from the ‘Conference Chair’, a status which gave her the No.3 position in the Republican Party’s leadership in the House. She was in the dock for being one of the 10 Republicans to have voted to impeach former US President Donald Trump; and for repeatedly calling him out for what is now called the ‘Big Lie’—that the 2020 election was stolen.
The Wednesday meeting of Republicans was clearly with Trump. Some of them booed Cheney. North Carolina’s Representative Madison Cawthorn tweeted: “Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, goodbye Liz Cheney”. The removal of Liz Cheney, daughter of the Gulf War hawk and former vice president Dick Cheney, is a watershed moment in American politics. It represents the complete and final control of Donald Trump over the post-election Republican Party.