RNC's censure of Cheney and Kinzinger is 'even more disturbing' than people realize – according to this conservative

According to The Bulwark's Amanda Carpenter, the outrage surrounding the Republican National Committee's censure resolution that claimed the House committee investigating the Capitol riot is persecuting "ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse" is missing the point.

"Yes, it was despicable that the RNC would censure Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for serving on the Jan. 6th Committee," Carpenter writes. "And yes, any plain reading of the document would leave the reader with the impression the RNC was describing the rioters as engaging in 'legitimate political discourse.' That’s troubling enough. But if you look closely at remarks made last week by RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel, you’ll see something even more disturbing."

In the resolution to censure the two GOP lawmakers, the RNC said that "Cheney and Kinzinger are participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse, and they are both utilizing their past professed political affiliation to mask Democrat abuse of prosecutorial power for partisan purposes."

McDaniel said that "legitimate discourse" referred to efforts by GOP activists who agreed to serve as electors for Trump.

Carpenter, who formerly served as Ted Cruz's communications director, explained that RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel is "pissed that RNC members are getting hit with subpoenas for participating in the phony electors scheme designed by the Trump campaign to deny Joe Biden his Electoral College victory."

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Carpenter points to the wave of subpoenas last month for Republicans who called themselves “alternate electors” for former President Donald Trump -- individuals who submitted phony Electoral College certificates to Congress and the National Archives.

"All told, 84 Republicans signed on as false electors for Trump. Most of them were state and local activists, not national-level figures. But the direct involvement in the scheme of RNC members, even if just a handful, is striking," Carpenter writes. "It’s those RNC members complicit in the phony electors scheme that the authors of the censure resolution had in mind when they wrote about 'ordinary citizens' being 'persecuted' for 'engaging in legitimate political discourse.'"

"McDaniel is attempting to draw a bright line between those who physically rioted on Jan. 6th and those who inspired them to do so. But the notion that the phony electors bear no moral or political responsibility for the insurrection of Jan. 6th makes no logical sense."

Read the full op-ed over at The Bulwark.