#Cuomocide: Conservative women lead the call for Andrew Cuomo to be impeached
Plus, the Fierce Force gets a new member.
Fierce is a free weekly newsletter about conservative women and politics.
Happy Friday! Time for your weekly recap of conservative women who are making news.
In today’s edition:
The Fierce Force expands with Claudia Tenney FINALLY being declared the winner in NY-22
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-SC) says the vote to remove her from her committee assignments could prevent the GOP from retaking the House in 2022
Several prominent conservative women call for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to be impeached for his botched handling of nursing homes during COVID-19
— Teri Christoph (Email: fierce@substack.com)
Let’s start with some good news: the Fierce Force grew by one this week after Claudia Tenney was finally declared the winner in her race against Democrat incumbent Rep. Anthony Brindisi in New York’s 22nd congressional district. The recount went on for three long months, but Tenney prevailed and took back the seat she lost to Brindisi in 2018. Here’s to more of this:
Just as Tenney prepares to be sworn in, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) is preparing for a battle to keep her congressional seat. Miller-Meeks was sworn in last month on provisional basis, with Democrat Rita Hart contesting results in Iowa’s 2nd congressional district. Funny how Democrats — and their friends in the lapdog media — get really quiet when it’s one of their own contesting election results.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) held a press conference a day after last week’s House vote to remove her from her committee assignments and warned the GOP that retaking the House in 2022 may now be impossible:
“Kevin McCarthy and the rest of the Republican Party is working hard on taking back the majority and when you have Republicans in the ranks voting against one of their own, opening the door for Democrats to go after every single Republican next, that really is a big betrayal and that could cost us the majority in ’22.”
As noted in last week’s newsletter, eleven of Greene’s Republican colleagues voted with Democrats to remove her from her committees. Three of those votes came from her fellow GOP freshman women: Reps. Young Kim (CA), Nicole Malliotakis (NY) and Maria Elvira Salazar (FL).
Fierce Force member Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-TN) called out Democrats for their double standards in dealing with questionable language, particularly in the case of Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who apparently favors riots when it’s her constituents doing it.
Getting back to Marjorie Taylor Greene for a minute, yesterday she introduced the Second Amendment Preservation Act, which would “bar federal funds for any gun control effort and block the sometimes heavy-handed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from enacting any new rules.” She promised to use her newly freed up time to keep making headlines, and it looks like she’s making good on that promise.
Rep. Yvette Herell (R-NM) has taken the lead on upholding Title 42, which ensures that anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 is denied entry at U.S. borders. Her Protecting Americans From Unnecessary Spread Upon Entry (PAUSE) Act has over thirty co-sponsors, and she told The Daily Signal “if [President Joe] Biden eliminates one of the tools that [former President Donald] Trump used in the toolbox, we know this slowed the spread in 2019 and 2020, and we don’t want to see it exasperating our border communities.”
On the subject of COVID-19, several conservative women are calling for the impeachment of New York governor Andrew Cuomo for his inept handling of his state’s nursing homes during the pandemic. This follows the astonishing admission by his aide that they hid the true number of nursing home deaths because they feared an investigation by the Trump administration.
Let that sink in. Cuomo signed an executive order that saw 9,000 people ill with coronavirus be released directly from hospitals into nursing homes, which resulted in thousands of further infections and deaths. Exactly how many deaths is unknown, as the Cuomo administration had admitted to lying about the numbers. Janice Dean, Fox News’ senior meteorologist, has been dogged in her pursuit of answers from Cuomo after both of her in-laws died from COVID while in a nursing home.
Luckily, Dean has a lot of support from conservatives.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis:
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene:
Rep. Nancy Mace:
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) is calling not just for Cuomo’s impeachment, but also for his prosecution. In a statement yesterday, Stefanik implored:
"Governor Cuomo, the Secretary to the Governor, and his senior team must be prosecuted immediately - both by the Attorney General of New York State and the U.S. Department of Justice. This bombshell admission of a coverup and the remarks by the Secretary to the Governor indicating intent to obstruct any federal investigation is a stunning and criminal abuse of power.”
Interestingly, Cuomo met today with President Biden at the White House. The issue of nursing home deaths in New York was not addressed.
Last, but not least … Nikki Haley.
To misquote Forrest Gump — and in a nod to Valentine’s Day — Nikki Haley is a like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.
I started the week thinking she was getting her messaging together by going after a can’t miss issue for conservatives: biological males competing in girls sports. Haley wrote a piece in National Review, rightfully concluding:
“If this trend isn’t stopped, the achievements of so many brave women over so many years will be erased. That’s wrong. It’s insulting. And women know it, too, whether they’re retired athletes, middle-aged mothers, or a 16-year-old girl thinking of signing up for swimming. They’re just afraid to speak out, because they know they’ll be silenced and called bigots.”
Cool, you’re thinking. She gets it. And she’s not afraid to speak up. This is exactly what we need.
Fast forward to today’s Politico article about Haley, where she inadvisably sat down for an extensive interview with a reporter who was never going to be fair or truthful. She allowed him to twist her flip-flopping support for/derision of President Trump into one big question mark about her suitability for higher office. Not to mention giving the reporter ample opportunity to rant ad nauseam about the former president.
How was this a smart move on Haley’s part? It wasn’t, and she’s obviously lacking in direction and political savvy at the moment. She’s lost support of grassroots conservatives, I feel confident in writing, after accusing Trump of being responsible for the January 6th chaos on Capitol Hill. I don’t see how any GOP candidate wins in 2024 by throwing Trump under the bus in 2021.
Nikki Haley may lose out on 2024 before her campaign even gets under way.
Question of the Week
Last week’s question was: Do you agree with the House’s decision to remove Rep. Greene from her committee assignments? I was hoping someone would make the case for removing MTG from her committees, but, alas, everyone disagreed with the vote by the Democrats — and eleven Republicans!
“I don't at all agree with removing Rep. Greene from her committees for her words. Especially given the fact that the words that the Democrats don't like are things that she said before she was elected. She was a normal private citizen. These are not words that she used in her now official capacity as a Representative of her district in GA.”
“No. She should have felt the waters a bit more, before jumping in full force. But, we need some backbone in Washington and hopefully this hasn't discouraged that backbone.”
“I absolutely do not agree with the houses position to remove Marjorie Taylor green from her committees. Who hasn’t said or done things they have regretted and considering the fact that she was censored for comments she made as a private citizen and there are democrats who have kept their committee positions after inflammatory things were said and done, some could even say treasonous, is hypocrisy.”
How could this week’s question not be about Nikki Haley. Here goes:
Do you support Nikki Haley running for president in 2024?
Please send your responses to me at fierce@substack.com.
In Their Own Words: $15 Minimum Wage
Rep. Michelle Fischbach (R-MN): “Democrats want to hike the minimum wage to $15/hour in the next COVID relief bill, but the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says it would increase the deficit by $54 BILLION and cost 1.4 MILLION jobs over the decade. That is not acceptable.”
Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-TN): “I’m in Congress to help create, not destroy, jobs. The Democrats’ radical wage hike would cost over a million jobs according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. This is the wrong prescription for pandemic recovery.”
Rep. Lisa McClain (R-IL): “Raising the minimum wage to $15 would not only eliminate more than a million jobs, it would be detrimental to our businesses who are barely getting by with the strict COVID lockdowns.”
Keep on Your Radar
Rep. Massie’s Brilliant One-Line Bill to Eliminate the U.S. Department of Education
Former Staffer Kills Himself Outside Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne's Home
Members of Congress and the public should be allowed to protect themselves at all times
Podcast
I’ve decided to record each Friday’s email as an audio newsletter. Listen here:
Just for Fun
Happy tax season!
Teri Christoph is the publisher of the Fierce newsletter. She is co-founder of Smart Girl Politics, an online network for women, and can be found on Twitter, Gab and MeWe.