BATH, Maine — Sen. Susan Collins came to fellow Republican Rep. Liz Cheney’s defense on Monday as House Republicans prepare to vote on whether to oust Cheney from her leadership role as House Republican conference chair.
Cheney has taken on Republicans and has been an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump for promoting discredited claims that the 2020 election was stolen. House Republicans could vote as early as Wednesday to remove Cheney, the highest-ranking woman in the Republican leadership and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, from her leadership role, and replace her with Rep. Elise Stefanik, whose ascension has received Trump's backing.
Collins, who has also been criticized by GOP members in Maine and in Washington over her vote to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial earlier this year, said Cheney embraces all the basic Republican principles.
“Whether or not one agrees with Liz Cheney, there should be room in Republican leadership and in the Republican Party for people who have a variety of views but adhere to the basic principles of the Republican Party—a belief in personal responsibility, in opportunity, in individual freedom, in free markets, and a strong national defense. And Liz Cheney certainly embraces all of those principles,” Collins said while visiting Bath Iron Works on Monday.
Collins’ comments are reminiscent of her own defense when she faced being censured by Maine Republicans earlier this year.
“I think that we need to send a message that you can be a good Republican and not necessarily agree with every position taken by the party,” Collins said in an interview with NEWS CENTER Maine in February as talks of a possible censure against her mounted. “We need to get back to focusing on the principles that unite Republicans—of individual responsibility and of freedom, and strong national defense, smaller government support for our small businesses, opportunity. Those are guiding principles of our party and I think that's where the focus needs to be rather than on one particular leader.”
“I obviously have no role in the leadership elections in the House,” Collins said on Monday, “and if there's one thing that I've learned in my time in the Senate, it's that the House members do not like advice from senators.”