在前总统的电话协助下唐纳德·特朗普布什的长子、佛罗里达州众议员马特·盖兹周四前往众议院共和党会议主席利兹·切尼的家乡敦促怀明吉夫妇投票让她下台在2022年，她声称这位无任所的国会女议员是华盛顿“权势掮客”的一部分，并与她所代表的人民。
“我认为，如果利兹·切尼和她的所有支持者举行集会，他们可能会在国会大厦的一部电梯里会面，而且仍然有足够的空间进行社交距离，”盖兹在夏延怀俄明州国会大厦前的一群几乎没有面具的人面前嘲笑道。
这位佛罗里达州议员说，他周三与前总统交谈过，告诉人群，“他非常爱你们所有人，特朗普总统将竭尽全力为这个国家而战。”
众议员马特·盖兹在新泽西州夏延市反对众议员利兹·切尼的集会上向人群发表讲话
他接着强调了特朗普团队委托的民调，他说这位前总统要求他分享这一民调，这表明切尼在她的州内获得了令人沮丧的支持。
盖兹严厉批评了切尼的外交政策立场，并让她与其他长期当选的两党官员——众议院议长南希·佩洛西(Nancy Pelosi)、总统乔·拜登(Joe Biden)、参议院少数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell)和参议员米特·罗姆尼(Mitt Romney)——联系起来，说他们在美国首都组成了“私人内部俱乐部”，并认为“他们希望让我们的政府回到默认的环境，让他们富裕起来，让他们以牺牲我们的利益为代价变得更加强大。”
但盖兹承诺，在下一次选举中，“怀俄明州将让华盛顿屈服。”
当被问及对盖兹集会的评论时，切尼竞选团队提供了前州众议员艾米·埃德蒙兹(Amy Edmonds)的声明:“怀俄明州不喜欢外人进入我们的州，试图告诉我们该做什么。”
这位国会议员的来访正值共和党正在努力解决影响有多大特朗普现在不在办公室，应该接管这个政党。更尖锐的是，此行是一些共和党人试图剥夺切尼作为众议院第三高共和党人的领导地位的升级，因为她是投票的10名共和党人弹劾特朗普“煽动叛乱”为了他的角色1月6日暴徒袭击美国国会大厦。
盖兹说，他不是在争取切尼在党内领导层的位置，但他跨越州际界限与她竞选的决定强调，他不仅希望她下台，而且希望她下台。尽管代表佛罗里达州的一个区，并在她的讲话中承认他直到周四才去过怀俄明州，盖兹发微博上周他知道“怀俄明州可以做得更好。”
众议员马特·盖兹在反对众议员利兹·奇的集会上向人群讲话后向支持者致意
然而，众议院少数党领袖凯文·麦卡锡并不支持他的会议中的一些人对切尼的降级。一位熟悉麦卡锡领导言论的人士向美国广播公司证实，周三在与他的政党成员的电话中，麦卡锡告诉他们停止公开攻击对方，明明白白地说，“废话少说”。
据消息人士透露，麦卡锡在电话中说:“如果你不关注你在做什么，民主党人在做错什么，你专注于谈论彼此，我再也不能忍受了。”
在接受采访时美国广播公司新闻直播集会结束后，主持人林西·戴维斯向盖兹施压，要求他周四的集会如何帮助他的政党在未来两个周期内赢回众议院、参议院和白宫。
“我希望共和党获胜，但要做到这一点，我们必须有获胜的价值，”盖兹争辩道。“现在，共和党内部存在身份危机。华盛顿有人认为我们必须清除特朗普主义...我认为不同的观点。我认为，我们必须走出国门，我们必须形成积极的民粹主义，这将带来更好的候选人、更好的政策，并最终带来更好的选举表现。”
盖兹和切尼在2017年1月同时加入国会，但尽管盖兹以特朗普最热情的支持者之一而闻名，但切尼是少数几个愿意在前任总统任期内有时与他作对的国会共和党人之一，这种情况经常会结束外交政策。
“‘美国第一’，我们不是一个安静的运动，我也不是一个安静的人，”盖兹在夏延说，指的是特朗普的核心平台。“我们正在为共和党的灵魂而战，我打算赢。”
现在要知道盖兹对怀俄明州的访问将对2022年8月16日初选日期产生多大影响还为时过早。她的弹劾投票并没有受到怀明人的普遍谴责。包括三位前怀俄明州州长在内的30名律师和法官在20世纪90年代撰写了一篇专栏文章卡斯帕明星论坛说他们“为切尼众议员的勇气感到骄傲”
这位国会女议员与该州的关系是世代相传的，因为她代表怀俄明州唯一的自由区，她的父亲、前副总统迪克·切尼(Dick Cheney)曾在该区任职10年。她在仅仅一个任期后就被选为领导人，这给了这个国家人口最少的州一个专属席位。
一个更小的州也意味着更少的选民，所以在人口更稠密的州，一群反切尼的选民可能看起来微不足道，但在怀俄明州可能是成败攸关的。
到目前为止，怀俄明州至少有三个县的共和党指责切尼的弹劾投票，她已经有了一个主要的挑战者，州参议员安东尼·布查尔德，他在广播中播放了一个60秒的广播广告，将切尼贴上“全球主义者”的标签，并将她与拜登联系起来。
当小特朗普在集会上打电话时，他说，希望看到切尼下台的人围绕一名候选人集会是至关重要的，但他也呼吁耐心。
“让我们找一个好的人，让我们找一个人并支持他们，”小特朗普说，他声称切尼获胜的唯一方法是如果有太多人参加竞选，“她让几个RINO失败者一起获得最大的票数。”
他继续说，“不要只支持第一个出现的人...让我们找到与她完全相反的人，让我们全力支持那个人——但我们今天不要做那个决定。”
切尼轻松赢得了2018年和2020年的共和党初选，在18年的中期选举中击败了两名挑战者，在上一个周期再次击败了其中一名候选人。
GOP congressman Gaetz, Trump Jr. urge Wyomingites to oust fellow Republican Liz Cheney
With an over-the-phone assist from former President Donald Trump's eldest son, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz on Thursday traveled to House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney's home turf to urge Wyomingites to vote her out of office in 2022, arguing that the at-large congresswoman is part of the "establishment power brokers" in Washington and out of touch with the people she represents.
"I think if Liz Cheney had a rally with all of her supporters, they can likely meet inside one of the elevators in the Capitol and still have enough room for social distancing," Gaetz taunted at the top of his remarks before a mostly maskless crowd gathered in front of the Wyoming State Capitol building in Cheyenne.
The Florida congressman said he had spoken to the former president on Wednesday, telling the crowd, "He loves you all so much, and President Trump is going to keep fighting for this country with every breath that he has."
He went on to highlight polling that was commissioned by Trump's team, which he said the former president asked him to share, that showed dismal support for Cheney within her state.
Gaetz heavily criticized Cheney's foreign policy stances, and looped her in with other longtime elected officials of both parties -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, President Joe Biden, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Mitt Romney -- saying they make up "the private insider club" in the nation's capital and arguing that together, "they want to return our government to its default setting, enriching them, making them more powerful at our expense."
But Gaetz pledged that in the next election, "Wyoming will bring Washington to its knees."
When asked for a comment about Gaetz's rally, the Cheney campaign provided this statement from former state Rep. Amy Edmonds: "Wyoming doesn't like it when outsiders come into our state and try to tell us what to do."
The congressman's visit comes as the GOP is grappling over how much influence Trump should have over the party now that he's out of office. More pointedly, the trip is an escalation of an effort among some Republicans to strip Cheney of her leadership status as the third-highest ranking Republican in the House of Representatives because she was one of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for "incitement of insurrection" for his role in the Jan. 6 mob attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Gaetz has said he's not gunning for Cheney's spot in the party's leadership ranks, but his decision to cross state lines to campaign against her underscores that he doesn't just want her out of leadership, but out of office. Despite representing a district in Florida, and acknowledging in her remarks that he had never been to Wyoming until Thursday, Gaetz tweetedlast week that he knows "Wyoming can do better."
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, however, is not in support of the effort among some in his conference to demote Cheney. In a call with members of his party Wednesday, McCarthy told them to stop publicly attacking each other, saying plainly, "Cut that crap out," a person familiar with the leader's remarks confirmed to ABC News.
"If you're not focused on what you're doing and what the Democrats are doing wrong, and you're focused on talking about one another, I'm not putting up with that anymore," McCarthy said on the call, according to the source.
In an interview with ABC News Live Prime following the rally, anchor Linsey Davis pressed Gaetz on how his rally Thursday will help his party win back the House, Senate and White House in the next two cycles.
"I want Republicans to win, but to do that, we have to be worthy of winning," Gaetz argued. "Right now, there's an identity crisis in the Republican Party. There are some in Washington who believe that we've got to purge Trumpism ... I think a different view. I think that we've got to get out in the country, and we have to marshal a positive populism that will lead to better candidates, better policies and ultimately a better electoral performance."
Gaetz and Cheney joined Congress at the same time, in January 2017, but while Gaetz made a name for himself as one of Trump's most ardent supporters, Cheney was one of the few congressional Republicans willing to sometimes buck the former president during his tenure, often over foreign policy.
"'America First,' we are not a quiet movement, and I am not a quiet man," Gaetz said in Cheyenne, referencing Trump's core platform. "We are in a battle for the soul of the Republican Party, and I intend to win it."
It's much too early to know how much impact Gaetz's visit to Wyoming now will have on Aug. 16, 2022, the date of the primary. And her impeachment vote wasn't universally condemned among Wyomingites. A cohort of 30 lawyers and judges -- including three former Wyoming governors -- penned an op-ed in the Casper Star-Tribune saying they were "proud of Rep. Cheney's courage."
The congresswoman's ties to the state are generational, as she represents Wyoming's lone at-large district that her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, held for 10 years. She was elected to leadership after just one term in office, giving the nation's least populated state a seat at an exclusive table.
A smaller state also means a smaller pool of voters, so a bloc of anti-Cheney voters that could seem insignificant in a more populated state could be make-or-break in Wyoming.
So far, at least three county Republican parties in Wyoming have censured Cheney for her impeachment vote, and she already has a primary challenger, state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, who has hit the airwaves with a 60-second radio ad labeling Cheney a "globalist" and connecting her to Biden.
When Trump Jr. phoned into the rally, he said it was critical that those who want to see Cheney ousted rally around one candidate, but he called for patience, too.
"Let's find someone good and let's find one person and back (them)," Trump Jr. said, claiming the only way Cheney would win is if too many people entered the race and "she gets a couple of the RINO losers together to actually take the biggest number."
He continued, "Don't just back the first person that comes along... let's find exactly the opposite of her and let's back that person fully -- but let's not make that decision today."
Cheney easily won Republican primaries in 2018 and 2020, beating out two challengers in the '18 midterms and one of those same candidates again last cycle.
