The No. 2 House Republican is throwing his support behind upstate New York Rep. Elise Stefanik to replace Rep. Liz Cheney as the third-ranking leader in the chamber.
Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana says the Trump-backing Stefanik has the conservative chops to help lead the GOP to the 2022 midterms and beyond.
“House Republicans need to be solely focused on taking back the House in 2022 and fighting against Speaker Pelosi and President Biden’s radical socialist agenda,” Scalise said in a statement. “Elise Stefanik is strongly committed to doing that.”
The Louisiana Republican’s statement marks the first explicit call from GOP leadership to remove Cheney, R-Wyo., who has been on the outs with her Republican colleagues over her criticism of former President Donald Trump.
Stefanik has not yet publicly announced her bid. But the New York representative, whose district stretches from outside Albany to the Canadian border, has reportedly been calling GOP colleagues to shore up support.
Cheney was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach the former president for inciting violence at the Capitol. She has maintained a drumbeat of criticism of Trump ever since, sparking a war of words with the ex-president and blasting his claim that the 2020 election was stolen.
The onetime rising GOP star, whose father is former Vice President Dick Cheney, even drew criticism for exchanging a fist bump with President Biden before his recent speech to Congress.
But McCarthy, in a Fox News interview Tuesday, signaled that his support for Cheney was waning.
“I have heard from members concerned about her ability to carry out the job as (House Republican) conference chair, to carry out the message,” he told Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy. “We all need to be working as one if we’re able to win the majority.”
