>> that was at the cpac. a turning point for liz cheney.were asked if trump should feature as a speaker. kevin mccarthy said yes. liz cheney said he shouldn't have a role in the future of the party. the final straw is this article from last week. liz cheney wrote an article for the washington post where she asked republicans to stand for truth and the rule of law, no matter whathe short-term political consequences might be. after that, we understand kevin mccarthy begin taking steps to ouster. -- oust her. he was unknowingly recorded telling a fox news presenter of lost confidence. liz cheney has remained unrepentant. here she is yesterday. >> millions of americans have been misled by the former president. they have heard only his words, but not the truth. remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar. i will not participate in that. i will not sit back and watch in silence, while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins a former president's crusade to undermine our democracy. >> we heard from liz

thank you to our candidates tonight for wanting to serve on the cpac.so want just to acknowledge the time for early education, given what has been presented by governor newsom, transitional kindergarten and the countries there, along with the city and county in san francisco, with the california supreme court upholding little c, proposition c, and what that will mean for our road map for high quality education but really looking at the opportunities to also address things, long-standing equity and inequities for our zero through five children, so thank you, again, to our candidates who are stepping into these roles. >> commissioner boggus? >> i just had a question. are any of the candidates san francisco residents, and is that what we kind of look for in our candidates? >> yes. >> great. so all are san francisco residents? awesome. >> yes. >> okay. if there are no other questions or comments, we'll do a role call vote. [roll call] . >> clerk: that's seven ayes. >> thank you, miss casco. so we are on section c, item four, last item for this section, appo

>> well, i think -- remember there was the cpac conference, the conservative political action committeely 55% even wanted donald trump to be the nominee. even among the hardest of the hardcore, he basically gets a majority. >> but a majority nonetheless. >> we, yes, a majority to lose again. you can win the nomination, but if that's getting a ticket on the "titanic" what good does that do to you? we need people to come up with the innovative solutions that i know republicans are good for. we have a lot of voices out there who could give voice to the news ideas if we get donald trump off the stage. doing what they did today has only enhanced trump at a time when we know his personal numbers continue to sink, even if they are still the majority of republicans, they are a minority of the country. that's not going to change. >> so talking about -- looking forward the future and new voices, that takes me back to where we started, this is congresswoman cheney after the vote this morning. >> i will do everything i can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the oval

conservative candidates, and stefanik is not a moderate but not as conservative as liz cheney, and then cpacik is 34, and cheney with a 78. so this is not an ideological, this is not the republicans saying liz cheney is not conservative enough, because she's more conservative than the congresswoman that's going to replace her, so it's about? >> trump. he is the litmus test, and that's the future of the republican party and anybody arguing otherwise right now is not watching what is unfolding for liz cheney right now. this moved fast, john. can you imagine another time in which there was some chatter about people being unhappy about cheney and less than a week later there's essentially a conversion where everybody gets behind one candidate and they are ready to move to oust the number three republican. that's incredible. how quickly this all moved has not just surprised me but a lot of aides, including leadership on capitol hill. >> and surprised a lot of people that thought trump would fade as the day passes. and donald trump gets what donald trump wants. thank you for all of this and your h

the polls are showing that and people keep forgetting, too, when he had that big cpac family gathering in florida it was all his people. right? this is a family gathering. when they took a poll and the poll done by his pollster saying he would win the presidential election he only got 55% of the vote to vote for him again and if you go home and say do you like me and 55% of the family say yes that's not good so even his own family internal -- the closest circle you can get knows that he is polarizing and divided the country and now the party and there's no way of dividing it and getting to 50% or an electoral victory so this is a disaster, sore loserism politics. that's what trumpism is. divorce from reality has both matt gaetz and marjorie taylor greene are the boest examples o but the fact they're still there in the party and no action against them by republicans but attacking liz cheney? if you're elise stefanik do you want matt gaetz's endorsement? he that's the endorsement you say get away from me. >> absolutely. but your former boss ted cruz the latest republican to head down to

look at the cpac poll. president trump won that.ia coverage. he had no social platforms anybody. he's still out there quite a bit and still revered. still a king maker. so those things are important factors. who is a distant second? ron desantis. if you look at what governor desantis has done in the state of florida, betting on floridians to make the best decisions for themselves. taking away the mask mandate yesterday was hugely important for businesses here and for all floridians. this is really important what he's done and the steps he's taken. >> neil: guys, thank you all. so bottom line here, you don't have to focus on what someone is saying off mic to hear clearly what he was saying on mic when he thought he was on air. that he has problems with liz cheney and liz cheney presumably has powers that be in the republican party. stay with us. ody wants the same thing. that's why i go with liberty mutual — they customize my car insurance so i only pay for what i need. 'cause i do things a little differently. hey, i'll take one, ple

>> that's up to cpac.president trump the extent to which he was in january 6th, i don't believe he should be playing a role in the government. >> reporter: a source selling he declined to back her up. is cheney still a good fit? >> that's a question for the conference. >> reporter: mccarthy making it clear he's not in agreement by cheney. >> president trump is still a very active part of our party and a vocal leader in our party. >> reporter: now, cheney does have support, particularly from those other nine other republicans who voted to impeach donald trump. one of those anthony gonzalez, a ohio republican told me in a prerequisite is lying to our voters then liz is not the best fit. now gonzalez like cheney facing primary challenges. and multiple republicans tell me they do expect potentially this could come to a vote against within the house republican conference. some expectation that perhaps she won't be successful fending off a challenge this time. but these are secret ballot elections if it were to

>> that's up to cpac.i don't believe that he should be playing a role in the future of the party or country. >> reporter: a source told cnn mccarthy remains furious with cheney. this week, he declined to back her up. >> is cheney still a good fit for your leadership team, do you think? >> that's a question for the conference. >> reporter: making clear he's not in agreement with cheney, steve scalise. >> president trump is still a very active part of our party and and vocal leader in our party. >> reporter: cheney does have support in the house, including anthony gonzalez who, like cheney, voted with eight other colleagues to impeach donald trump. gonzalez told me if a prerequisite to leading our conference is lying to our voters, then liz is not the best fit. it is possible cheney could face a vote within house republican congress to maintain that number three leadership position. it's unclear, though, how that would turn out. she fended off the last challenge. this time it seems like she's losing support,

. >> do you believe that former president trump be speaking at cpac this weekend. >> yes, he should.use i have been clear about my extent of his involvement in january 6th, i don't believe he should play a part in the leadership of the country. >> is represent cheney still fit to lead the party? >> that is up to congress. >> and making it clear that he is not active with the party. >> president trump is still a vocal leader with the party. >> and now, representative cheney who joined with eight of their colleagues who voted to impeach president trump, and gonzalez said that if part of the conference is lying to the voters then liz is not the best fit, but it is possible that cheney could face a vote within the house conference to maintain the number three leadership position, but it is unclear how that would turn out. she fended off the last challenge, but this time, it seems that she is losing support according to multiple republicans that i spoke with, however, these are secret ballot elections and how such a vote like that could turn out is anyone's guess. man manu raju, capitol h

>> that's up to cpac. i've been clear on my role. >> if you challenged pennsylvania, would that have changed and lowered president biden's numbers below 270? >> he supported the texas lawsuit. >> no, no, no. you ask questions every week. i'm asking you a question. if you remove arizona -- you're not removing it, but you're asking about it. if arizona and pennsylvania were removed from the electoral college, would president biden's number be below 270? >> no, but -- >> the answer is no -- wait, wait, wait. i'm not donald trump. >> i was the first person to contact him when the riots were going on. he didn't see it. how he ended the call is he said he would put something out to stop this. and that's what he did. >> quite a lot later. i'm specifically asking you. i guess some people are more concerned about the election than you are. >> no, listen. my conversations with the president are my conversations with the president. we were making sure we could stop what was going on in the capitol at that time. the p

56% of americans thought he should be impeached for the january 6th events and i would go back to cpac, his own family gathering essentially, a very conservative gathering where his own pollster found he had only 55% support among basically his own family gathering, so his -- it is dissipating, and to make him the litmus test i think is a big mistake, and you look at states like -- we have a democrat governor and republican -- in republican kansas because kris kobach was the trump nominee and steve bannon went in and played with alabama with the roy moore race and lost that race and marc sanford got unseated in south carolina back in 2018 and we lost that seat so you go too extreme in these primaries and then you're going to start lose seats so that's the challenge now when you make trump the litmus test instead of a broad coalition which to get to a majority we need a very lot of different people to represent their district. >> alexander, what do you think this all means for the ability to compromise because president biden is constantly talking about the need for a strong republican

. >> do you believe president trump should be -- former president trump should be [inaudible] cpac this weekend. >> yes, he should? i don't believe he should be playing a role in the future of the party. >> on that high note, thank you all very much. >> mccarthy aligned himself with the former president to help republicans reclaim the house. cheney found irony in her fate in democrats often invoking cancel culture. >> we can't cancel each other. >> cancel culture i have some thoughts about that. >> the g.o.p. dumped cheney partly because they need to be together to win the house next year, elise stefanik of new york likely succeeds cheney but there are divisions. some republicans rouse that republicans are s. not as conservative as cheney. bret. >> bret: thanks. congresswoman liz cheney will join us tomorrow with an interview tomorrow with her reaction to the house vote, her thoughts about the future of the republican party tomorrow on "special report." senate minority leader mitch mcconnell spent some time in the oval office today with congressional leadership in an attempt to find som

. >> look at what happened with cpac, which was a family gathering of right wing or whatever wing trump people are, trump wing people, and he only got 50% of that vote when he took a family gathering vote. now think about that, if you asked your family, do you like me and only 50% of them said they like you, that's not promising. his numbers are diminishing, it's just those, like the matt gaetz and the -- much louder than everyone else and those loud people do intimidate people. that's why i think it's very dangerous for republicans to be, you know, putting blood in the water by going after liz cheney. they are going to turn around and start going after others, and they're going to do things like what trump did in '18 when he went after mark sanford in south carolina because he didn't like that mark sanford spoke out after him. he beat mark sanford in the primary, but then that candidate lost in the general. we did get that seat back now, but not because of trump, because we have a good woman who's in that seat, but she may be threatened by trump again. but these people need to stand up