Is the Republican tent big enough to include both Reps. Liz Cheney and Madison Cawthorn? Or might the two of them be on the outs come fall?
Cheney is facing one of the toughest primaries in the country after voting to impeach former President Donald Trump for his role encouraging supporters to raid the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Cawthorn, on the other hand, is all-in on Trump’s vision for the Republican Party — and then some. Last week, after Cawthorn suggested his colleagues in Washington, D.C., host orgies and use cocaine, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said he’d lost trust in Cawthorn and Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, from Cawthorn’s home state of North Carolina, endorsed Cawthorn’s primary challenger.
In this installment of the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast, the crew discusses how these two primaries serve as a test of what the Republican Party and its voters will and won’t accept. They also try to get to the bottom of whether Americans support the “Parental Rights In Education Bill” — or what its critics call the “Don’t Say Gay Bill” — which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law last week.
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