WASHINGTON — Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday said it was “not the job” of the Republican National Committee to censure Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for participating in the House investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, which he described as a “violent insurrection” in contrast to the party’s resolution characterizing it as “legitimate political discourse.”
His blunt rebuke of the RNC’s actions on Friday contrasted sharply with House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who declined to say whether he supported the move, and a fellow member of House Republican leadership who said the party acted within its rights.
The resolution’s continuing reverberations laid bare the unresolved tensions within the Republican Party, between those who want to keep the focus solely on Democrats in the run-up to this year’s midterm elections, and former President Donald Trump and his loyalists who are fixated on punishing his political opponents and relitigating the 2020 presidential race.
