AP Photo/Tony Dejak
- Trump blasted GOP. Rep. Anthony Gonzalez for his impeachment vote following the Jan. 6 riot.
- The former president gave a speech in support of Max Miller, a former White House aide running against the congressman.
- Trump derided Gonzalez as “the candidate of Liz Cheney.”
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When the House impeached former President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, 10 Republicans crossed over to join Democrats in the highly consequential vote.
Rep. Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, a two-term lawmaker who represents a conservative Midwestern district, was one of those Republicans.
Trump has not forgotten about the vote.
The former president, who held a rally in Wellington, Ohio, not far from Cleveland, has already backed former White House aide Max Miller in the GOP primary over Gonzalez in the state’s 16th Congressional district.
On Saturday, Trump made it clear that he was willing to go all-out for Miller as he seeks political vengeance against party members that he deems as “RINOs,” or Republicans in name only, a pejorative generally reserved for members of the party who aren’t considered to be true conservatives.
The former president laced into Gonzalez, a 36-year-old congressman and ally of Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, another Republican who backed Trump’s second impeachment and who was stripped of her leadership role for vocally fighting back against his false election claims.
Trump called Gonzalez “a grandstanding RINO” who’s “not respected in DC” and rebuked the congressman’s vote for what he calls “the unhinged, unconstitutional illegal impeachment witch hunt.”
“I didn’t get to know him too well,” the former president said of Gonzalez, accusing the congressman of repeatedly asking to fly on Air Force One during his presidency.
“I put him on the plane [Air Force One]. The next time I heard his name, he was impeaching me!” Trump said. “He’s a sellout, he’s a fake Republican and a disgrace to your state. He’s not the candidate that you want representing the Republican Party. … Every single Republican needs to vote him out of office.”
Trump derided Gonzalez as “the candidate of Liz Cheney.”
Before Cheney was removed from her leadership post as Conference Chair, Gonzalez told The Hill in April that if House Republicans couldn’t accept her honesty, then she wasn’t the most suitable person for the role.
“If a prerequisite for leading our conference is continuing to lie to our voters, then Liz is not the best fit,” he said at the time. “Liz isn’t going to lie to people. Liz is going to say what she believes. She’s going to stand on principle. And if that’s going to be distracting for folks, she’s not the best fit. I wish that weren’t the case.”
In the end, Trump’s loyalists continue to run the House GOP apparatus, which continues to give the former president the upper hand within the party.
“After he voted for impeachment, the Ohio GOP censured Gonzalez and demanded that he resign and resign immediately,” the former president said on Saturday. “He’s still hanging in there. Every single Republican needs to vote him out of office.”
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