House Republicans wasted little time following President-elect Trump’s orders to enact his plans for retribution. On Tuesday, the House Administration’s oversight subcommittee released a report saying that Liz Cheney’s communication with January 6 subcommittee witness Cassidy Hutchinson violated the law.
Republicans’ plans come as Trump told NBC’s Meet the Press that he wanted to see members of the January 6 select committee go to jail. Throughout much of Trump’s time as a candidate and president, a common refrain by Republicans was essentially “take him seriously, not literally.” In other words, he doesn’t really mean that. Republicans could then justify their support for his worst impulses to say he really meant he supported their major priorities.
But the recent actions by the subcommittee shows not only that Trump means what he says, but that he will demand that Republicans find the legal rationale to do so. Trump went as far as to thank the subcommittee’s chairman Barry Loudermilk for the report.
“Liz Cheney could be in a lot of trouble based on the evidence obtained by the subcommittee, which states that ‘numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney, and these violations should be investigated by the FBI.’ Thank you to Congressman Barry Loudermilk on a job well done,” he said in a 3 a.m post on Truth Social.
Trump has long had it in for Cheney, more than almost any other Republican who crossed him. In the days before the election, he said “Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her”, referring to her support for previous US wars.
Cheney is the only person on Trump’s list of people whom he sees worthy of his wrath.
Sen. Mitt Romney, the retiring Utah Republican has been the loudest critic. Romney voted to convict Trump in both of his impeachment trials and vocally criticized Trump’s influence on the GOP as malign. But Romney told The Independent he did not fear potential retribution, citing how Trump told Meet the Press that he wanted to look forward.
“I think that's the most wise use of his time,” he said. “That’s where he's going to concentrate, and frankly, I’ve lived a pretty good pretty clean life so I'm not worried about that.”
Trump is not just saving his ire for other elected officials – Democratic and Republican alike. He also made clear that he wants to go after the press. The president-elect also filed a lawsuit against The Des Moines Register and the longtime pollster J Ann Selzer for “brazen election interference” after the paper released Selzer’s poll showing Kamala Harris having a lead against Trump in the former swing state that has since become a Republican stronghold.
The poll proved to be way off the mark since Trump would defeat Harris by double digits. Selzer would announce her retirement shortly thereafter But Trump is saying Selzer and The Register released the poll with fraudulent numbers to boost Harris.
Ostensibly, this should lead to Iowa’s congressional delegation to come to the defense of the local press. But Sen. Chuck Grassley, the nonagenarian Republican, brushed off Trump’s remarks.
“Guess he can sue anybody he wants to — he’s suing a lot of people,” Grassley told The Independent.
Grassley will serve as the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee next year when Republicans take the majority. Ostensibly, this should lead to him wanting to hold the administration accountable.
But Grassley has long abandoned his reservations about Trump and will instead focus on confirming more judges the way he did during the first Trump presidency.
The decision by both Trump’s sharpest critics and his biggest supporters show the breadth and the depth of Trump’s influence in the Republican Party. Republicans don’t seek to serve as a body that will advise and consent the president in his coming term, but rather his biggest facilitators.
