GOP censures Cheney, Kinzinger as it assails Jan. 6 probe

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Republican National Committee censured two GOP lawmakers on Friday for participating on the committee investigating the violent Jan. 6 insurrection and assailed the panel for leading a “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”

GOP officials took a voice vote to approve censuring Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger at the party's winter meeting in Salt Lake City. The censure was approved a day after an RNC subcommittee watered down a resolution that had recommended expelling the pair from the party.

The censure accuses Cheney and Kinzinger of “participating in a Democrat-led persecution."

RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel denied that the “legitimate political discourse” wording in the censure was referring to the violent attack on the Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump and said it had to do with other actions taken by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

RNC members take issue with what they see as the overly broad subpoenas, including one for Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward. Ward, an osteopathic doctor, sued to block the subpoena and argues providing her phone records would compromise patients’ privacy.

“What are you going for? What are you looking for? You should have a specific scope,” said Pam Pollard, an RNC member from Oklahoma.

McDaniel and her co-chair Tommy Hicks focused their remarks to RNC members on the 2022 midterms and key tenets of their platform — crime rates, parental rights over school curriculum choices and pandemic restrictions on businesses. Though they hardly mentioned the former president by name, Trump's sway among party officials was made evident by the censure and criticisms of the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Cheney, of Wyoming, and...