Top House Republicans are squabbling about money amid concerns about their 2020 prospects. At a closed-door meeting on Monday night, Rep. Liz Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican, and two other members of leadership fought with Rep. Tom Emmer, the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, over dues to the committee—and the fight had Republican sources dishing up some particularly delicious quotes.
Emmer reportedly took aim at Cheney, as well as at House Republican Conference Vice Chair Mark Walker and Republican Policy Committee Chair Gary Palmer, for not having paid their NRCC dues. All three are reportedly considering Senate runs, which means they’d be leaving House leadership after officially announcing, and that they have reason to hoard money. Walker, though, has an additional reason to withhold dues: He’s angry that the NRCC hasn’t paid $50,000 in legal bills related to him being mentioned (as “Public Official A”) in a bribery indictment against the North Carolina Republican Party chair. And if they’re not paying his bills, he’s not paying theirs.
But “There were other members of leadership [other than Walker] that were challenged about their commitments to NRCC and pushed back pretty aggressively”—Cheney and Palmer. Politico reports that “Cheney, the House Republican Conference chair who outranks Emmer, fired back that she has met her fundraising benchmarks and paid her party dues.”
”They had a little scuffle, the point of discussion that they had that Liz raised with Emmer is that there is some concern from members that Emmer is double counting what he is bringing in to the NRCC, so members are concerned about that and members are concerned that the NRCC, in general, doesn't have a plan moving forward,” a “source familiar with the discussion” told The Hill.
Interestingly, while the NRCC’s fundraising hasn’t looked bad for a party that lost its majority, another Republican source told The Hill that “we do have serious money issues but it’s not really Liz’s fault.” So we’ve got “double counting” and “serious money issues.” Oh, and we don’t “have a plan moving forward.” You know what all that means: popcorn time.