Miami Republicans avoid discussing Cheney’s ouster for challenging Trump’s false claims

In January and February, Miami Republican U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez defended Congresswoman Liz Cheney ahead of an unsuccessful attempt to oust her from her House leadership position for her vote to impeach former President Donald Trump on a charge of inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection.

“I think Liz Cheney voted her conscience. That’s fine. I didn’t vote with Liz Cheney, but I think she voted her conscience,” Gimenez said on CNN a day after President Joe Biden’s inauguration. “And so I’m fine with Liz Cheney continuing as our conference chair. Some of my other colleagues are in bitter disagreement with it, and want to remove her. I don’t. I think she’s great, and I think a difference of opinion is always good.”

Three months later, Gimenez didn’t publicly defend Cheney, the highest-ranking Republican woman in the U.S. House, before GOP House members swiftly ousted her on Wednesday in a 15-minute meeting that culminated in a short speech from Cheney and a voice vote.

And after the vote to oust Cheney, neither Gimenez, nor Miami’s two other Republican members of Congress, U.S. Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar and Mario Diaz-Balart, would say how they voted or discuss Cheney’s removal.

Salazar told the Miami Herald Wednesday afternoon she was not commenting on Cheney’s removal from her leadership post. Staff for Gimenez did not respond to a request for comment on the vote.

And in a statement, Diaz-Balart did not say if he supported or opposed Cheney’s ouster, though he said he doesn’t support “attempts to shift focus” from Biden’s record as president.

“I won’t participate in the attempts to shift focus from Biden’s disastrous first four months in office,” Diaz-Balart said. “At this moment, I am focused on the gas shortages, increasing inflation, the border crisis, the violent attacks on Israel, and the fact that President Biden wants to transfer U.S. technology to China by means of the World Health Organization.”

Salazar, who arrived at the brief meeting after Cheney spoke and just before the voice vote, did not say what her position was when asked by a Herald reporter ahead of the vote. Efforts to find and speak to Gimenez and Diaz-Balart before and after the vote were unsuccessful.

Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds, who supported removing Cheney because she was a “distraction,” said after the meeting that about three-quarters of the lawmakers in the room voted by voice for her removal. A request for a recorded vote by someone in the room was ruled out of order.

In recent weeks, Cheney kept speaking out about Trump’s lies that the 2020 election was stolen after he continued to make public statements questioning the results. Her position eventually led House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to endorse her removal, all but ensuring her fate.

“I will do everything I can to ensure that former President Trump never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office,” Cheney said after the vote. “We cannot both embrace the big lie and embrace the Constitution. And going forward, the nation needs it. The nation needs a strong Republican Party. The nation needs a party that is based upon fundamental principles of conservatism.”

Cheney, a Wyoming Republican and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in January.

None of Miami’s three Republicans voted to impeach Trump. Gimenez and Diaz-Balart also voted to overturn election results in two states hours after the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol. Salazar was recovering from COVID-19 and wasn’t yet sworn in for the vote.

Trump’s continued, false assertions that the 2020 election was not legitimately decided continue to define Republicans. He’s expressed interest in running for president again in 2024, remains popular with many Republican voters and vowed to support primary challenges for anyone who crosses him.

“Liz Cheney is a bitter, horrible human being,” Trump said in a statement after the vote. “I watched her yesterday and realized how bad she is for the Republican Party. She has no personality or anything good having to do with politics or our Country. She is a talking point for Democrats.”

In a speech on the House floor Tuesday evening ahead of the vote, Cheney recounted meetings she’d had with people around the world who fled communism or fought for democracy, including a Cuban American who escaped Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba.

“Three men, an immigrant who escaped Castro’s totalitarian regime; a young man who grew up behind the Iron Curtain and became his country’s minister of defense; and a dissident who spent years in the Soviet gulag have all told me it was the miracle of America captured in the words of President Ronald Reagan that inspired them,” Cheney said. “Today we face a threat America has never seen before. A former president, who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol in an effort to steal the election, has resumed his aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him. He risks inciting further violence.”

Salazar, Gimenez and Diaz-Balart are all Cuban American and represent the country’s largest Cuban communities.

Despite Cheney losing her leadership position, she has no intention of staying silent on Trump and plans to run for reelection in 2022.

“Liz has committed the only sin of being consistent and telling the truth; the truth is the election was not stolen,” said Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of the only House Republicans who publicly defended Cheney in recent days. “I stand with Liz, I’m proud of her. There’s a lot of people who are proud of her for what she’s done and a lot of people who feel threatened by her and that’s their decision.”

This story was updated with a statement from Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart.

This story was originally published May 12, 2021 at 11:47 AM.