Freedom Caucus member Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) comes out in support of the embattled Republican Rep. Liz Cheney (WY) after being removed from the Republican leadership as conference chair, the number three position, Wednesday.
Cheney lost her leadership position from a voice vote Wednesday morning after the motion was introduced by Rep. Virginia Foxx’s (R-NC).
After the vote, when speaking to reporters, Buck, who has been a supporter of Cheney, said, “Liz Cheney was canceled today for speaking her mind and disagreeing with the narrative that President Trump was putting forward.”
There will be a candidate forum Thursday for Cheney’s replacement. New York Rep. Elise Stefanik (R) is the only current candidate running for the position, and the voting will take place Friday.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy threw his support behind Stefanik. Over the weekend, when asked by Maria Bartiromo from Fox News if he would support Stefanik for the leadership spot, he said, “Yes, I do.”
On Tuesday night, on the eve of being ousted from leadership, Buck allowed Cheney to hijack time on the House of Representatives floor to air her grievances. Buck, who was in charge of distributing time to House members for a debate on cancel culture, yielded to Cheney.
Cheney already made plans to be active in the midterms looking to find the “Cheney party” after her major disagreement with the current path of the Republican party.
Breitbart News Washington political editor Matthew Boyle reported this week that Buck, as the ranking member on the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, is leading this charge by continuously co-sponsoring and promoting a bill that would allow “big media companies to form a cartel to pressure companies for more censorship and special favors by creating a special antitrust carve-out for them.” The bill is called the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA), but has also been dubbed, “the antithesis of conservatism,” by McCarthy, who opposes the bill.
This is happening as Buck is “taking thousands and thousands of dollars this year from special interests and lobbyists backing the legislation.” In the last two months alone, Buck reportedly “raked in at least $18,000 from lobbyists, special interest groups, and PACs for organizations that support the legislation he is championing that would fundamentally change the media and technology landscape,” according to his Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings.