Freedom Caucus ups pressure on McCarthy to move against Pelosi, Cheney, and Kinzinger

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Members of the House Freedom Caucus are upping the pressure on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to make tangible moves in retaliation to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as well as Republican Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger over the select committee to investigate Jan. 6.

They have two proposals. The first is for McCarthy to make a privileged motion on the House floor to vacate the chair, aimed at ousting Pelosi and triggering a new election for speaker.

The second is for the House Republican Conference to adopt a rule change that would automatically remove any member who accepted a committee assignment not from the Republican leader or from the Republican Steering Committee, which decides panel assignments. That would apply only to Cheney and Kinzinger, who sit on the select committee because Pelosi appointed them.

Arizona Republican Rep. Andy Biggs, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, the most conservative House faction, said Pelosi’s veto of two of McCarthy’s five picks to sit on the Jan. 6 committee was “intolerable.” Biggs suggested that Cheney and Kinzinger could essentially be spies for the Democrats.

SOME IN GOP MOVE TO KICK OUT CHENEY AND KINZINGER AND MAKE SHUNNING OFFICIAL

“In conference, we discuss strategy, policy, and how to advance the Republican platform,” Biggs said. “It is antithetical to have sitting in your conference individuals who have professed that they want to take out the minority leader and that they want to join the Democrats on a witch hunt through the Republican Party to try to take members of the Republican Party out.”

Whether McCarthy goes along with the request may have implications for his hopes of becoming House speaker if Republicans win back the chamber in 2022.

Asked if a McCarthy refusal to make a motion would factor into his decision-making for a future speakership vote, Biggs said: “Everybody gets to make that call themselves.”

The Freedom Caucus sent a letter to McCarthy last week to ask him to make a motion to vacate the chair, and Biggs brought up his proposal to change House Republican rules to kick out Cheney and Kinzinger at a Tuesday conference meeting, during which it did not move forward.

But the group of far-right confrontational Republicans is not allowing their proposals to fade away. A dozen members of the caucus held a press conference on Thursday to promote the proposals — in addition to criticizing the re-implemented Capitol mask mandate.

“We are asking Kevin McCarthy to join us in putting an end to the draconian authoritarian reign of Nancy Pelosi,” Georgia Republican Rep. Jody Hice said.

South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman said Cheney and Kinzinger had “switched teams,” and Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert said Cheney and Kinzinger have “simped for Pelosi.” Virginia Republican Rep. Bob Good said McCarthy’s term for the pair, “Pelosi Republicans,” is not quite appropriate. “I assure you they are not Republicans,” Good said.

Both proposals are uphill battles, though.

While House Republican rules require a two-thirds vote from the entire conference, adoption of Biggs’s resolution requires just a simple majority, making it a simpler solution. Biggs said he thinks he has the votes to pass the rule.

But getting the resolution to a vote is part of the challenge. His proposal was assigned to a committee on Tuesday, which needs to be put together, and then that committee would make a recommendation to the rest of the conference. Biggs hopes that would happen in the next day or two, but he said he doesn’t “think that’s realistic” before members head back to their districts for the month of August.

Some Republicans may also have little incentive to kick the two members out when they have long touted being a “big tent” party.

“They chose to leave. The big tent’s still there. They just have chosen to be on the outside of that big tent,” Biggs said.

When it comes to vacating the chair, the motion is highly likely to fail because Democrats are in the majority and could vote it down.

But for the Freedom Caucus, the principle is the point.

“If you do not stand up to tyranny in the face of potential defeat, then you will never stand up [to] tyranny in potential victory, either,” Biggs said. “Maybe there’s only one chance in 100 that we actually get to vacate that chair and she’s removed. But I’d rather take that one-in-100 shot.”

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He also added that there are many Democrats who stated that they would not support Pelosi to be speaker, and calling the motion would force them to go on the record about her speakership again.

Five Democrats did not vote for Pelosi to be speaker at the start of this Congress, with three of them voting “present” and two voting for other Democrats.

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