committee. i think those two individuals would have a hard time ever coming back to congress. reporter: and look, kinzinger is not trying to come back to congress. congresswoman liz cheney is in a reelection battle. we know that s one of the key house districts that the former president donald trump is focusing a lot of his efforts on. he would like very much to see her lose her reelection bid, and that is really the stakes here as we go into the midterm elections. we re going to have to see the way that january 6th as a political issue begins to play. we have seen people like liz cheney repeatedly over and over try to call to her party s better angels, try to talk to republicans, as a political issue but instead as a moral issue. it does seem when you see censures like this at the rnc s winter meeting the way that they are talking about this, it does seem like she s losing that battle but at the same time she s going to have her moment at the ballot box in this upcoming year and we
so the fallout is continuing on capitol hill after the censures of representatives liz cheney and adam kinzinger by the gop. that included the suggest that january 6th amounted to legitimate as they put it, political discourse. senator lisa murkowski is one of only a handful of republican whose have publicly condemned the move. here s what she had to say. i m not here to be the representative of the republican party. i m here to be the representative for alaskan people. when the party is is taking an approach or saying things that i think are just absolutely wrong, i think it s my responsibility as an alaskan senator speaking out for alaskans to just speak the truth. all right, let s talk about this, kind of the reaction on capitol hill and what s next here. nbc news senior national
(vo) for me, one of the best things about life is that (vo) 5g ultra wideband is now in more and more places. we keep moving forward. we discover exciting new technologies. redefine who we are and how we want to lead our lives. basically, choose what we want our future to look like. so what s yours going to be? welcome back. so new reaction today to the differing ways in which republican leaders are characterizing january 6th. former vice president mike pence saying directly that trump was wrong to think that he could have overturned the election. to the rnc, censuring the two
he tweeted shame would fall on a party who censures personal conscience. honor attaches to liz cheney and adam kinzinger for seeking truth even when doing so comes at great personal cost. some in the house want to primary, liz cheney wants to endorse one. remember, adam kinzinger is not running for re-election. this puts house minority leader kevin mccarthy in a sticky situation as republican leaders don t weigh in especially if there s an incumbent running. but, of course, most of the republican party is against liz cheney for her speaking out against them for white washing the events. very indyk active mitt romney was the candidate for the republican party and now he s shamed by the actions of those within his own party.
behind the scenes with that? well, look, the original form of this would have been very ceremonial in nature because, as was mentioned, there is no mechanism by which the republican national committee can decide who gets to serve in congress or gets to serve in the house republican caucus. so that is one point made very clearly among members here on the ground yesterday. but in addition to that, one source is telling cnn that there were conversations that happened behind closed doors in deliberations yesterday about the very unprecedented nature of this resolution, even just censuring both kinzinger and cheney and what that could mean moving forward. i m told there are members this brought up the fact that it will open the door to future censures of other republican lawmakers who might anger the base or make controversial comments that could attract controversy to the national party and that could lead to censures in the future.