House Republicans vote to retain Rep. Liz Cheney as No. 3 leader

WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — House Republicans voted overwhelmingly Wednesday evening to keep Liz Cheney, R-Wy, as their No. 3 leader.

The secret 145-61 vote came after some far-right Republicans pushed for her removal after she was one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach former President Donald Trump on the charge of inciting an insurrection following the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol.

“We really did have a terrific vote tonight,” Cheney said to reporters. “It was a very resounding acknowledgment that we need to go forward together and that we need to go forward in a way that helps us beat back the really dangerous and negative Democrat policies.”

During a break in the closed-door session, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters he’d defended Cheney inside.

“People can have differences of opinion. That’s what you can have a discussion about. Liz has a right to vote her conscience,” said McCarthy, who’d previously given no clear signal about whether he’d support his lieutenant.

“I won’t apologize for the vote,” Cheney told her colleagues in that closed-door session, according to a person familiar with the session who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting.

Republicans also decided not to take action against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has propagated a series of unfounded conspiracy theories and has been a vocal supporter of Trump’s baseless assertion that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.

“This Republican Party is a very big tent,” McCarthy said. “Everyone’s invited in and you look at the last election, we continue to grow and in two years will be the majority.”

Cheney is a daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and a fixture of the party establishment. 

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report