One Republican source, who frequently talks to McCarthy, said the GOP leader probably would favor Stefanik, who is close to McCarthy and who was one of Trump’s chief defenders during his first impeachment proceedings in 2019. The source said Walorski, a five-term lawmaker whom McCarthy tapped to lead Republicans on the House Ethics Committee, also would be acceptable.
“It will be Elise or Jackie, one plugged-in, senior House Republican told The Hill, citing the need to have a woman at the leadership table.
Aside from Cheney, McCarthy’s leadership team is almost entirely comprised of white men. Dumping Cheney has created a potentially embarrassing situation for Republican leaders who are both touting the diversity of their 2020 freshman class and hoping to broaden their tent again in the 2022 midterms, when they see a good shot at winning back the House.
More broadly, the former president has focused the nation’s attention on China as the United States’s premier national security concern, putting pressure on Senate Republicans to support legislation Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer
McConnell is the most powerful Republican leader in Washington, but he doesn’t have the same unrivaled platform that he did when he was in the same position head of the minority opposition in Washington at the start of former President Obama’s tenure.
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McConnell has seized on Biden’s announcement that he will withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan as a prime example of him talking like a centrist but governing from the left.
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The Hill has reached out to Cheney for comment.
Cheney has been under pressure from Trump and his allies since her vote to impeach him, with the former president regularly taking time to offer barbs toward the conservative Republican and daughter of the former vice president. Trump has made no secret of his hope that Cheney will lose a primary next year.
The remarks targeting Cheney took place at a regular conference meeting behind closed doors on Feb. 3 and included calls for her to be removed from leadership.
In February, Cheney thwarted an attempt by GOP allies of Trump to remove her from her No. 3 leadership position in the House GOP conference. The conference, in a secret ballot vote, decided 145-61 to keep Cheney in leadership.
McCarthy, in an interview with Greta Van Susteren airing Sunday, maintained that he supports keeping Cheney in her role as the No. 3 Republican in the House but said she did not inform him of her decision to impeach Trump before she cast her vote.
“Look, I support her, but I also have concerns. She took a position as a No. 3 member in conference. She never told me ahead of time. One thing about leadership, if we re going to work together, we should understand. We know that this is going to become a difficulty,” he said.
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“She can have a difference of opinion, but the one thing, if we re going to lead within the conference, we should work together on that as a whole conference because we re representative of that conference. So I support her, but I do think she has a lot of questions she has to answer to the conference.”