According to a report in The New York Times, political consultants have been issued a stark warning in recent weeks: if they work with Rep. Liz Cheney, they cannot work with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
The Times reports that Jeff Miller, a prominent GOP lobbyist with close ties to McCarthy, “has conveyed this us-or-her message to Republican strategists” which “marks the full rupture between the two House Republicans.”
“She’s not just undermining Kevin but the whole G.O.P. conference,” Miller told the Times. “You’re either with Kevin, and the conference, or the person undermining them. You can’t serve two masters.”
The pressure campaign designed to ostracize Cheney seems to be working. One fund-raising firm severed ties with Cheney, who has become an outcast in GOP circles for her vociferous criticism of former President Donald Trump and the Republicans who attempt to downplay the seriousness of the January 6th riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The Times explains that McCarthy’s latest escalation against Cheney smacks of self-preservation. If both Cheney and McCarthy are re-elected and Republicans take control of the House in 2022, Cheney would likely try to block McCarthy from becoming speaker.
“It’s sad but not surprising that Kevin McCarthy is continuing down the morally bankrupt path of embracing House Republicans who are white supremacists and conspiracy theorists, but attacking Liz Cheney for telling the truth and standing for the Constitution,” a Cheney spokesman told The Times.
Greg Sargent, a columnist for The Washington Post, contextualizes Cheney’s banishment:
It’s typical for party leaders to exercise discipline with hardball tactics. But Daniel Ziblatt, co-author of “How Democracies Die,” notes a key nuance: What’s being enforced entails punishment for seeking accountability for the elite overseers of anti-democratic street violence and an effort to disrupt democracy at its foundation.
“It’s not as if they’re enforcing this party discipline over Cheney on a tax bill,” Ziblatt told me. Remember: McCarthy also openly threatened that a GOP majority would punish private companies that cooperate with the Jan. 6 probe.
“This is how democracies get into trouble,” Ziblatt said. “It’s not just violence in the streets, it’s how the establishment responds.”