Republicans share incredibly awkward silence after expressing differing opinions on upcoming Trump speech

An incredibly awkward moment occurred on Wednesday when Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy publically disagreed with each other over an upcoming Donald Trump speech.

The former president is due to speak at the annual conservative event CPAC, which is taking place in Florida this weekend. It will be Trump’s first major public speech since leaving the White House last month and given his previous speeches, it should be quite the spectacle. However, there seems to be some disagreement amongst Republican officials as to whether Trump should be speaking or not.

At a press conference, McCarthy was asked whether Trump should be speaking at CPAC or not and without hesitation, he said “Yes, he should.” Cheney, who was asked the same question had a slightly different and longer answer. The daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney said, “That’s up to CPAC. I’ve been clear on my views about president Trump and the extent to which following 6th January, that I don’t believe that he should be playing a role in the future of the party or the country.”

Cheney’s answer was greeted with an almost stunned silence as nobody in the room quite knew what to say following her decisive statement on the issue. For four seconds nobody said a thing until McCarthy broke the silence in a chirpy manner.

Cheney, the third highest-ranking Republican in Congress was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump following the violent insurrection on 6th January.

Although Cheney has subsequently received a lot of pushback for standing against Trump, including being asked to resign by the Wyoming Republican Party, people were pleased to see that the criticism hasn’t caused her to back down.

Meanwhile, some Republicans have attempted to quell the growing voices of division in the Republican party at the moment. Senator Rick Scott shared a letter he wrote which has since been shared by Fox News where he said, “The Republican civil war is cancelled. The long-running impeachment show is now over. This political theatre should have been held at the other end of Washington in the Kennedy Center instead of the US Capitol. It was an unserious circus. It’s over. Now it’s time to look ahead.”

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