McDaniel defends RNC censure of Kinzinger, Cheney amid GOP pushback

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel on Tuesday defended the organization’s censure of GOP Reps. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) and Liz Cheney (Wyo.), blaming the media for what she called “patently false coverage” of the move.

“If corporate news media wants to know why Americans don’t trust it anymore, they should look no further than the shameful, outrageous, and patently false coverage of the resolution adopted by the RNC to censure Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger,” McDaniel wrote in an op-ed for the conservative news site Townhall. 

The RNC voted last week to formally censure Cheney and Kinzinger for the “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse” by sitting on the House committee investigating the events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and for their criticism of former President Trump.

The censure resolution, which drew immediate pushback from within the GOP as well as from Democrats, says Cheney and Kinzinger’s actions have “been destructive to the institution of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Republican Party and our republic, and is inconsistent with the position of the Conference.” 

In her op-ed, McDaniel said the two were “hand-picked by Nancy Pelosi” to sit on the committee she says “vastly exceeded its original purpose and morphed into something else entirely, investigating Republicans who had nothing to do with January 6 for the apparent offense of being Republican.”

McDaniel stressed she has decried the violence that happened on Jan. 6.

But she added, “the awful events of that day do not justify Cheney or Kinzinger enabling a partisan committee whose real purpose seems to be helping Democrats’ electoral prospects at the cost of potentially ruining innocent people’s lives.” 

A number of Republicans have condemned the RNC’s censure, including Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who voted to convict Trump in both his impeachment trials and who is McDaniel’s uncle. 

“Shame falls on a party that would censure persons of conscience, who seek truth in the face of vitriol. Honor attaches to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for seeking truth even when doing so comes at great personal cost,” he tweeted.

Kinzinger said the censure “was a bridge that went way too far” and the Jan. 6 committee is “working together, pulling in the same direction all to get one thing, which is answers.”

McDaniel said any investigations into Jan. 6 should be done by law enforcement and “Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are cheapening the events of January 6th by participating in Nancy Pelosi’s partisan committee.”