“The women don t get the same slack that the men get,” former Rep. Barbara Comstock
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“They re on their knees for Trump and she s standing up for herself,” Comstock added. “And that s kind of an embarrassing thing if you re the guy on your knees.”
The pushback arrives as House Republicans pressured by Trump and dismayed by Cheney’s rebukes of him are charging ahead with plans to oust her as the head of the party conference. Because Cheney is the only woman in the top tiers of leadership, the emerging consensus is to replace her with another woman: Rep. Elise Stefanik
My vision is to run with support from the president [Trump] and his coalition of voters, which was the highest number of votes ever won by a Republican nominee, Stefanik reportedly told Bannon on his War Room podcast on Thursday.
“This is also about being one team. And I’m committed to being a voice and sending a clear message that we are one team, and that means working with the president and working with all of our excellent Republican members of Congress.”
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Stefanik has emerged as the likely successor to Rep. Liz Cheney
Cheney has come under criticism from former President Trump
Trump more than three months out of office remains the dominant force within GOP politics and is willing to try to sink fellow Republicans heading into 2022.
That’s left Republicans divided into largely three camps: Flatter Trump, try to ignore Trump or, increasingly rarely, fight Trump, none of which unite a fractured party.
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Cheney’s embrace of the third option is not only highlighting her odd-woman-out status on Capitol Hill, but putting renewed focus on those larger divisions.
“There is an overwhelming need to please Trump … and yet that is felt more in the House than in the Senate,” said Doug Heye, a GOP strategist and former House leadership aide, about the differences in strategy. “That’s a big part of it.”
Luntz noted in an interview on the New York Times podcast “Sway” released Thursday that “more than two-thirds of Republicans believe that the election was stolen,” warning that a widespread and unproven belief that there was rampant fraud last November could turn Republicans off from voting in the midterm elections.
“What Donald Trump is saying is actually telling people it s not worth it to vote. Donald Trump single-handedly may cause people not to vote. And he may be the greatest tool in the Democrats arsenal to keep control of the House and Senate in 2022,” Luntz said.
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The pollster also said that Trump would be the odds-on favorite to win the Republican nomination if he runs again in 2024.