Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) met “off-the-record” Monday with Fox News board member Paul Ryan amid reports of impending removal from Republican House leadership.
“We can’t embrace the notion the election is stolen. It’s a poison in the bloodstream of our democracy,” Cheney said to the Fox News board member “behind closed doors at a conference in Sea Island, Georgia,” according to CNN.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughter interviewing with Ryan “suggests the former Wisconsin Republican is also seeking a role in trying to shape the party’s future. Ryan’s longtime political aide, Kevin Seifert, has been working for Cheney’s political team since earlier this year,” CNN asserted.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported Tuesday that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has “concerns” about Cheney’s ability to maintain her conference chair.
“I have heard from members concerned about her ability to carry out her job as conference chair, to carry out the message,” McCarthy said. “We all need to be working as one if we’re able to win the majority. Remember, majorities are not given. They are earned.”
The recent report comes as Breitbart News reported Monday an ally of McCarthy promised Cheney would be ousted from her leadership position by the end of the month.
“There is no way that Liz will be conference chair by month’s end. When there is a vote, it won’t be a long conference; it will be fast. Everyone knows the outcome,” the ally said.
As Cheney and Ryan attempt to maintain influence in the Republican Party, both seem eager to remove Trump from his influential position. For instance, Ryan said on April 30 that Trump “is going to fade.”
“I think circumstances, ideas and new candidates are going to… overshadow that whole conversation,” Ryan explained. “I think it’s wrong to suggest that this party is bifurcated around one person.”
The mainstream media, though, has its doubt of Ryan assisting Cheney. CNN’s New Day anchor John Berman highlighted Tuesday the meeting between Ryan and Cheney as disingenuous.
“Former Speaker Paul Ryan, he’s letting Liz Cheney speak her mind. He’s giving Cheney this platform to… hold a mirror up to the Republican Party. Well, if Paul Ryan really wanted to effect change within the Republican Party, what avenue does he have at his exposed, Oliver?” Berman asked reporter Oliver Darcy.
“Paul Ryan sits on the Board of Fox Corporation,” Darcy stated before condemning Ryan’s board membership at Fox News for “pumping poison… into American politics.”
As a member of the Fox board, Paul Ryan is profiting off of the poisonous rhetoric he supposedly detests. pic.twitter.com/FFidEPe5I9
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) May 4, 2021
Cheney and Ryan’s history reaches as far back as 2017 during Trump’s presidency, when Ryan, then-House Speaker, was unable to round up 216 votes needed for passage of legislation to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system.
Ryan’s failure highlighted the Republican establishment’s “capacity to govern effectively.” Ryan later resigned in 2018 to spend more time with his family before joining Fox News’s board.
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