House Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney is sending a “clear signal’ that she doesn’t want to remain in her leadership role with her continued push against former President Donald Trump, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Sunday.
“I like Liz Cheney, and I think Liz is smart and tough, but I think Liz is doing what she wants to do,” Christie, now an ABC News contributor, said about the Wyoming Republican during a panel discussion on the network’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”
Cheney, he added, won a vote earlier this year to oust her from the party’s No. 3 role in the House, but she still didn’t change her actions that led to that first vote.
“Once she won the vote earlier, she continued to press this issue publicly in a way that was antagonizing the people who were against her, and I think you don’t have an entitlement to be in leadership, but you have an entitlement to be in Congress,” said Christie.
He said he also likes Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who has the support from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, and several others to replace Cheney as conference chair, but he also thinks the New Yorker will bring a “much more moderating voice on policy” into the caucus leadership than did Cheney, who voted 90% of the time with Trump.
Meanwhile, Christie commented that most Republicans are ready to move on past the results of the 2020 election and to work on what needs to be done next in the United States.
“All I can tell you is that people I talk to are not in that camp and want to move on, and they want to talk about what we need to do next in this country,” Christie said.
Christie pointed out that this past Friday, he participated in an event in Austin, Texas, with “eight different leaders of the Republican Party,” such as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., to speak about the future of the party, and nobody there spoke about the ongoing fight over the 2020 election results.
The event included eight potential candidates for the GOP nomination in 2024, but Trump was not invited.
The event was co-hosted by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and also included Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, and Sens. Tim Scott, R-S.C., Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Rick Scott, R-Fla., reports Reuters. Ex-U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley was invited but was not able to attend.
“Nobody spoke about grievance politics. They were talking about the conservative agenda to move forward,” Christie said. “Not one of them brought up any of the issues we’re talking about this morning.”
He also said it’s “not productive” for Trump to be handpicking people who support him to run in the nation’s primary elections and attacking Republicans who cross him, but at the same time, “we shouldn’t be surprised.”
“That’s the way he has felt since 2:30 a.m. on election night,” said Christie.
The former governor also spoke out against the nation’s teachers’ unions and the role taken in the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention’s guides for returning students to school.
“They’re politicians who get paid millions of dollars a year to be able to represent teachers,” he said. “They don’t represent them well.”
