Rep. Elise Stefanik stated her case Thursday for replacing Rep. Liz Cheney as the No. 3 House Republican leader, implicitly lambasting Cheney’s battles with former President Donald Trump by saying, “We are one team and that means working with [Trump].”

What You Need To Know

  • New York Rep. Elise Stefanik made her case to replace Rep. Liz Cheney in House GOP leadership, blasting her battles with former President Donald Trump and urging the party to work with the president to retake the House in 2022

  • Stefanik said she is committed to "sending a clear message that we are one team and that means working with [Trump] and working with all of our excellent Republican members of Congress"

  • On Wednesday, Trump issued a statement backing Stefanik to replace Cheney as GOP Conference Chair

  • Cheney responded to the criticism against her in an op-ed in the Washington Post, where she urged the Republican party to "steer away from the dangerous and anti-democratic Trump cult of personality"

The remarks by Stefanik, R-N.Y., a one-time moderate who’s evolved into an ardent Trump champion, came as Cheney seems likely to be tossed from her leadership post next week. Cheney, R-Wyo., has repeatedly rejected Trump’s false insistence that he lost the 2020 election because of widespread fraud, and has blamed him for inflaming followers who assaulted the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Speaking on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, Stefanik said she is committed to “sending a clear message that we are one team and that means working with the president and working with all of our excellent Republican members of Congress.” Stefanik repeatedly used the word “president” in reference to Trump.

Facing opposition from Trump and the House’s two top Republicans — Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Whip Steve Scalise — Cheney has remained defiant.

On Wednesday, Trump issued a statement backing Stefanik to replace Cheney as GOP Conference chair: "We want leaders who believe in the Make America Great Again movement, and prioritize the values of America First. Elise Stefanik is a far superior choice, and she has my COMPLETE and TOTAL Endorsement for GOP Conference Chair."

Stefanik thanked Trump in a Twitter post later Wednesday: "Thank you President Trump for your 100% support for House GOP Conference Chair. We are unified and focused on FIRING PELOSI & WINNING in 2022!"

The careers of Cheney and Stefanik are seemingly racing in opposite directions, as if to contrast the fates awaiting Trump critics and backers in today’s GOP.

The turmoil also raised questions about whether the price for political survival in the party entails standing by a former president who keeps up his false narrative about a fraudulent 2020 election and whose supporters stormed the Capitol just four months ago in an attempt to disrupt the formal certification of Joe Biden’s victory.

Cheney responded to the criticism against her in an op-ed in the Washington Post, where she urged the Republican party to "steer away from the dangerous and anti-democratic Trump cult of personality."

In Cheney's op-ed, she acknowledged that while accepting Trump's election falsehoods in exchange for his support "might seem attractive to some for fundraising and political purposes," the approach could cause long-term damage to the Republican Party and the country.

"I am a conservative Republican, and the most conservative of conservative values is reverence for the rule of law," she wrote. "Each of us swears an oath before God to uphold our Constitution. The electoral college has spoken. More than 60 state and federal courts, including multiple Trump-appointed judges, have rejected the former president’s arguments, and refused to overturn election results. That is the rule of law; that is our constitutional system for resolving claims of election fraud."

"The question before us now is whether we will join Trump’s crusade to delegitimize and undo the legal outcome of the 2020 election, with all the consequences that might have," she continued. "I have worked overseas in nations where changes in leadership come only with violence, where democracy takes hold only until the next violent upheaval. America is exceptional because our constitutional system guards against that. At the heart of our republic is a commitment to the peaceful transfer of power among political rivals in accordance with law."

"History is watching. Our children are watching," she concluded. "We must be brave enough to defend the basic principles that underpin and protect our freedom and our democratic process. I am committed to doing that, no matter what the short-term political consequences might be."

There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. Dozens of state and local officials and judges from both parties have found no evidence to support Trump’s assertions that he was cheated out of an election victory.

Biden weighed in at the White House on Wednesday.

“I think Republicans are further away from trying to figure out who they are and what they stand for than I thought they would be at this point,” he told reporters.

Cheney, a daughter of Dick Cheney, who was George W. Bush’s vice president and before that a Wyoming congressman, seemed to have almost unlimited potential until this year. Her career began listing after she was among just 10 House Republicans to back Trump’s impeachment for inciting supporters to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6, when five died.

Stefanik, who represents a mammoth upstate New York district, began her House career in 2015 as a moderate Republican.

She opposed Trump’s ban on immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries, and joined Democrats in voting against Trump’s effort to unilaterally redirect money to building a wall along the Southwest border. She also led an effort to recruit female candidates for her party.

Stefanik’s rural district, which Barack Obama carried in his successful 2008 and 2012 presidential runs, was subsequently won twice by Trump. She morphed into a stalwart Trump defender and was given a high-profile role during the 2019 House Intelligence Committee impeachment hearings.

That was widely seen as a strategic move by the GOP to soften its image by giving a woman a prominent role. Stefanik’s status and visibility within the GOP have soared since then.

Cheney is the highest-ranking GOP woman in Congress. There are just 31 Republican women in the House, about one-third of Democrats’ total but up from the 13 who served in the last Congress.

There were no other visible contenders for Cheney’s post, with a secret ballot by House Republicans on her fate possible next week. A vote on a replacement, seemingly Stefanik, could come that day as well.

Cheney was making little noticeable effort to cement support by calling colleagues or enlisting others to lobby on her behalf, said two House GOP aides who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the situation. A third person familiar with Cheney’s effort also said she was not lining up votes.

Cheney’s opposition to Trump put her out of step with most House Republicans, 138 of whom voted against certifying the Electoral College vote for Biden’s victory.

Republicans say a McCarthy speech backing Cheney at a closed-door House GOP meeting in February was largely credited with her surviving an earlier push by conservatives oust her, in a 145-61 secret ballot.

A top House GOP aide has said McCarthy won’t do that this time.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.