She used to be known mostly for her vice presidential family lineage. But Rep. Liz Cheney, the third-most senior House Republican, is cutting a new path as the first GOP leader to call Rep. Steve King's remarks "racist" and call explicitly for his resignation.
"I'd like to see him find another line of work," Cheney, 52, told reporters on Tuesday.
It was the latest example of Republicans, toppled from the House majority in November's elections, taking a tougher and more uniform approach to racist remarks — at least by those in their own ranks. King had for years rankled the GOP with remarks about race as they watched blacks and Hispanics vote overwhelmingly for Democrats. All along, Republicans issued muted, if any, disapproval. And they're still reticent about how to respond to the leader of their party, President Donald Trump, and his remarks on race.
House Republican Conference chair Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., center, accompanied by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Calif., left, and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of La., speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019 in Washington. (AP PhotoAlex Brandon)
But House and Senate Republicans said the final straw came last week with King's quote in The New York Times.
"White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?" King mused in the paper.
Within hours, Cheney denounced his remarks on Twitter, in terms rarely if ever used by GOP leaders.
"These comments are abhorrent and racist and should have no place in our national discourse," she tweeted Jan. 10, reposting a news story that named the Iowa congressman. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and House GOP Whip Steve Scalise likewise condemned King's remarks and barred him from committee seats. The House on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to formally rebuke King. But Cheney is the only one of the three to call for King's resignation.
The only lawmaker to vote no was Illinois Democrat Bobby Rush, who wanted a stronger censure against King. But even he has noticed Cheney, in a good way.
"Liz Cheney, I commend her," Rush said in a brief interview.
"She was very clear," about what how she wanted to handle the King issue, McCarthy said of Cheney in a brief interview.
Clear, sometimes with a sharp edge, is the word on the two-term Wyoming congresswoman — an attorney, mother of four and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney. Like her father, Cheney was elected by her peers to chair the Republican Conference.
Cheney's ascent puts her in prime position to influence the party's branding strategy with GOP voters who fondly recall the George W. Bush presidency, especially those who favor a strong national defense. But as a woman in leadership, she'll also have a role in deciding how to bridge, or at least not exacerbate, the gender and diversity gaps between Republicans and Democrats. After the midterm elections, the ranks of House Republican women declined to only 13.
The arc of Cheney's political career reflects her reputation for doggedness. Five years ago she launched an ill-fated campaign to oust Wyoming's popular Republican senior senator, Mike Enzi. Labeled a carpetbagger for having moved to Wyoming from Virginia barely a year earlier, Cheney made things worse by feuding publicly with her openly gay sister about gay marriage.
She left the race eight months before the primary but didn't give up on politics. She continued touring Wyoming, in some cases mending the relationships she needed to dominate a crowded GOP House primary two years later.
Even before she was elected to the leadership post for this Congress, Cheney was clear about what she saw as the party's need for a quicker, more forceful communications strategy under Democratic rule.
"We've got to change the way that we operate, and really in some ways be more aggressive, have more of a rapid response," Cheney told The Associated Press in November.
Cheney's father won the conference chair more than 30 years ago after four terms as Wyoming's congressman. By landing the position after just one term, Cheney left little doubt that she's a rising political star in her own right.
"He told me not to screw it up," Cheney told reporters after she was elected to the leadership post, with her father looking on.
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian court on Friday ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials assessed how they can recover lost battlefield momentum in the war against Russia.
Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias ($1.77 million), a statement said.
Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Solskyi headed an organized crime group that between 2017 and 2021 unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias ($6.85 million) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.47 million).
Ukraine is trying to root out corruption that has long dogged the country. A dragnet over the past two years has seen Ukraine’s defense minister, top prosecutor, intelligence chief and other senior officials lose their jobs.
That has caused embarrassment and unease as Ukraine receives tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to help fight Russia’s army, and the European Union and NATO have demanded widespread anti-graft measures before Kyiv can realize its ambition of joining the blocs.
In Ukraine's capital, doctors and ambulance crews evacuated patients from a children’s hospital on Friday after a video circulated online saying Russia planned to attack it.
Parents hefting bags of clothes, toys and food carried toddlers and led young children from the Kyiv City Children’s Hospital No. 1 on the outskirts of the city. Medics helped them into a fleet of waiting ambulances to be transported to other facilities.
In the video, a security official from Russian ally Belarus alleged that military personnel were based in the hospital. Kyiv city authorities said that the claim was “a lie and provocation.”
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that civic authorities were awaiting an assessment from security services before deciding when it was safe to reopen the hospital.
“We cannot risk the lives of our children,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold online talks Friday with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which has been the key international organization coordinating the delivery of weapons and other aid to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said late Thursday that the meeting would discuss how to turn around Ukraine’s fortunes on the battlefield. The Kremlin’s forces have gained an edge over Kyiv’s army in recent months as Ukraine grappled with a shortage of ammunition and troops.
Russia, despite sustaining high losses, has been taking control of small settlements as part of its effort to drive deeper into eastern Ukraine after capturing the city of Avdiivka in February, the U.K. defense ministry said Friday.
It’s been slow going for the Kremlin’s troops in eastern Ukraine and is likely to stay that way, according to the Institute for the Study of War. However, the key hilltop town of Chasiv Yar is vulnerable to the Russian onslaught, which is using glide bombs — powerful Soviet-era weapons that were originally unguided but have been retrofitted with a navigational targeting system — that obliterate targets.
“Russian forces do pose a credible threat of seizing Chasiv Yar, although they may not be able to do so rapidly,” the Washington-based think tank said late Thursday.
It added that Russian commanders are likely seeking to advance as much as possible before the arrival in the coming weeks and months of new U.S. military aid, which was held up for six months by political differences in Congress.
While that U.S. help wasn’t forthcoming, Ukraine’s European partners didn’t pick up the slack, according to German’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks Ukraine support.
“The European aid in recent months is nowhere near enough to fill the gap left by the lack of U.S. assistance, particularly in the area of ammunition and artillery shells,” it said in a report Thursday.
Ukraine is making a broad effort to take back the initiative in the war after more than two years of fighting. It plans to manufacture more of its own weapons in the future, and is clamping down on young people avoiding conscription, though it will take time to process and train any new recruits.
Jill Lawless contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Ukrainian young acting student Gleb Batonskiy plays piano in a public park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
