Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., don’t agree on much, but both leaders didn’t mince words when it came to the Republican National Committee’s vote to censure two House Republicans for their work on the committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The measure to censure Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois was adopted last week by voice vote at an annual meeting of the RNC.
“Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger crossed a line,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement. “They chose to join Nancy Pelosi in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse that had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol.”
McConnell did not mince words about what he thought of the RNC’s censure measure: “The issue is whether or not the RNC should be singling out members of our party who may have different views from the majority. That’s not the job of the RNC.”
“Traditionally, the view of the national party committees is that we support all members of our party, regardless of their positions on some issues,” he said.
The Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — by a mob of supporters of former President Donald Trump attempting to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s win — saw five people killed, including a police officer.
McConnell also had harsh words for the RNC’s description of the violent insurrection.
“We all were here,” the Kentucky Republican said. “We saw what happened. It was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election, from one administration to the next. That’s what it was.”
McConnell’s comments come one day after Majority Leader Schumer said that the RNC “crossed a line” with their censure vote.
“Their statement didn’t even make mention of the violence that day,” Schumer said, calling their actions “chilling and plainly dangerous.”
“Theirs will be nothing less than everlasting shame,” he added, adding: “It puts us on a road where our democracy is at risk.”
At a press briefing on Tuesday, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki rejected the idea that Jan. 6 was “legitimate political discourse.”
“I think it clear to Americans that what happened on Jan. 6 was not ‘legitimate political discourse,'” the press secretary told reporters Tuesday. “Storming the Capitol and an attempt to halt the peaceful transition of power is not legitimate political discourse, neither is attacking and injuring over 140 police officers, smashing windows and defiling offices.”
“It’s telling to all of us that some leading Republicans have rejected that characterization, including the former president’s national security adviser and the chief of staff to the former vice president, who as he put it, had a front row seat that day including as rioters chanted for the former vice president to be hanged,” she added.
“We certainly reject the notion that that was legitimate political discourse as we think a large number of Americans would as well,” Psaki said.
McDaniel has attempted to walk back the “legitimate political discourse” comment by alleging that members of the party who were not at the Capitol on Jan. 6 were being drawn into the investigation.
A number of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have spoken out against the censure measure.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn criticized the RNC’s censure vote by saying “that was not a unifying action,” and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, who has been critical of the RNC’s actions since last week, said it “could not have been a more inappropriate message.”
“Anything that my party does that comes across as being stupid is not going to help us,” Romney said, telling reporters he texted McDaniel, his niece, to discuss the measure.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, one of the few Republicans who voted to convict former President Trump for his role in the riot, said that the censure vote was “absolutely wrong.”
“When the party is taking an approach or saying things that I think are just absolutely wrong, I think it is my responsibility as an Alaskan senator speaking out for Alaskans to just speak the truth,” Murkowski said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said that the people who “broke windows and breached the Capitol were not engaged in legitimate political discourse, and to say otherwise is absurd.”
“Every moment that is spent relitigating a lost election or defending those who have been convicted of criminal behavior moves us further away from the goal of victory this fall,” Collins added of Republicans’ chances in the 2022 midterms.
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, described the RNC’s censure on Monday as “lowest of low.”
“I respect him for his political courage time and again,” Durbin said of his fellow Illinois lawmaker. “I’m sorry he was a subject of that censure.”
Cheney and Kinzinger have both spoken out separately in the aftermath of the censure vote.
“I think every American who watched the video of that attack and who watched that attack unfold knows that it was really shameful to suggest that that what happened that day might be legitimate political discourse,” Cheney said, noting that she has received a “tremendous amount of support” since the vote.
Meanwhile, in an interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday, Kinzinger did not mince words, calling the vote a “defining moment for the party” and blasted House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy as “the weakest leader that has ever, frankly, existed in that position.”
Kinzinger also reserved ire for the former president, calling him “the worst president the United States of America ever had” on CNN on Monday.
“I just had a kid three weeks ago, and when he’s five or 10 and learning about history, I want to make sure that he gets a full accounting of what happened on Jan. 6,” Kinzinger said, adding he hopes other Republican members of Congress can do the same about the way they voted that day. “That’s going to be something in five or ten years that’s going to be hard to explain if you’re not on the side of truth.”
“He was a liar and a charlatan, and he was a man with a more fragile ego than anybody I’ve ever met,” Kinzinger told CNN he would tell his newborn son about Trump, adding: “The irony of it is he walks around like the tough guy, but he’s the one who gets more offended and wounded and sad than anybody I know.”
Some Republicans, however, defended the censure measure.
“The RNC has any right to take any action and the position that I have is that you’re ultimately held accountable to voters in your district,” said Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who replaced Cheney as GOP conference chair after her ouster from leadership last year. “We’re going to hear the feedback and the views of voters pretty quickly here this year.”
“Republicans have been very clear, we condemn the violence on Jan. 6,” Stefanik said, before attempting to equate the Capitol riot with the racial justice protests of 2020. “We also condemn the violence in 2020 as violent criminals attacked federal buildings including parts of Washington, D.C.”
“Whatever you think about the RNC vote, it reflects the view of most Republican voters,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said, criticizing Republicans who have spoken out against the censure. “In my state, it’s not helpful to have a bunch of D.C. Republicans commenting on the RNC.”
“They don’t represent the party,” said South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman.” They should be censured — if not stronger.”
