“Liz will have to say in the coming days,” a spokesman for Cheney said.
Since House Republican leaders actively maintained trying Wednesday to oust a part of their leadership team — No. 3 Rep. Liz Cheney — the congresswoman wasn’t backing up — but she was not openly fighting the move, either.
The embattled Wyoming representative has told people she doesn’t believe it’s worth functioning as the Republican Party’s convention chair if it requires lying about the election outcomes, a source familiar with the congresswoman’s believing told ABC News.
Cheney has angered her coworkers in the days and months after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot by repeatedly calling out former President Donald Trump’s election lies, which she stated she considers played a major role in inciting the insurrection.
In February, Cheney fought off a challenge to boot her out of the coveted leadership position as a result of similar conditions, though at the time she still had the support of top Republican leadership.
Cheney kept her leadership role following a closed-door GOP 145-61 vote with a secret ballot that demanded two-thirds support of this summit to remove her.
It’s not clear if that format or threshold will alter in any forthcoming vote. A spokesman for House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy did not respond to messages about the format of a conference vote.
And it’s unclear if Cheney can hold on to the spot this time around. Resources have told ABC News that a vote to boot Cheney could take place as soon as next Wednesday, during a House Republican conference-wide meeting.
Jeremy Adler, a spokesman for Cheney, signaled Wednesday morning that the congresswoman will not sit quietly as the intra-party attacks continue.
“This moment is about far more than a House leadership fight.”
Cheney is not actively whipping coworkers for their support to keep her in the place, a source close to Cheney said.
The congresswoman considers that evading questions regarding Trump and the election results rather than forcefully answering them — as other GOP leaders have done — is equal to”being complicit in the lie,” the source said.
“If you let [Trump] bloviate, you receive people assaulting the Capitol and you get folks attacking the very foundation of the Republic,” the source said in explaining the thinking behind her replicated remarks since Jan. 6.
On Wednesday, Trump himself weighed into criticize Cheney as a”warmongering idiot who does not have any firm in Republican Party Leadership.”
“We want leaders that believe from the Make America Great Again movement, and prioritize the values of America First. Elise is a tough and smart communicator!”
Stefanik has emerged as the obvious frontrunner should Cheney be ousted from her article, sources familiar with the issue told ABC News.
Stefanik, a dominant ally and protector of Trump, has been working the phones together with her staff in a bid for Cheney’s spot, sources said.
In January after the insurrection in the U.S. Capitol, the dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government declared Stefanik was removed from the advisory board of the Harvard University Institute of Politics following her”public assertions regarding voter fraud at November’s presidential election which do not have any basis in evidence, and she has made public statements regarding court activities associated with the election that are wrong.”
McCarthy’s team has begun thumping votes from Cheney and after McCarthy was captured on a hot mic in sound obtained by the Daily Caller saying he’s”had it” with Cheney.
“I think she’s got real problems. I have had it with…I have had it with her. You know, I have lost confidence,” McCarthy said in sound released by the Daily Caller.
“House Republicans must be solely focused on getting back the House in 2022 and fighting against Speaker Pelosi and President Biden’s radical socialist agenda, and Elise Stefanik is firmly committed to doing that, which is why Whip Scalise has pledged to support for Seminar Chair,” a spokesman for Republican Whip Steve Scalise said in a statement supplied to ABC News.
President Joe Biden offered his initial reaction to House Republicans’ attempt to oust Cheney, telling reporters Wednesday,”I really don’t understand the Republicans.”