Wyoming GOP Chairman Causes Uproar With Talks Of State Seceding With Texas

The vote to impeach President Donald Trump in his final days in office was a bipartisan one, and Wyoming wasn't happy. When the third-ranked Republican in the House of Representatives, Wyoming's Liz Cheney, voted for impeachment, many members of the GOP came down on the politician. On Monday (January 18), the chairman of the Wyoming Republican Party seemed to have addressed the controversy when he said that his state is "paying attention" to Texas and the Union's largest state's "consideration of possible secession."

Chairman Frank Eathorne appeared on former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon's podcast War Room where he made the controversial statements. “We need to focus on the fundamentals,” said Eathorne. "We need to focus on the fundamentals that’s been stated in this broadcast, and that is what Wyoming is."

"We are straight-talking, focused on the global scene, but we’re also focused at home," he added. "Many of these Western states have the ability to be self-reliant, and we’re keeping eyes on Texas too and their consideration of possible secession. Now, they have a different state constitution than we do as far as wording, but it is something that we’re all paying attention to.”

When the Casper Star-Tribune in Wyoming reached out to Eathorne for clarification on his comments, the GOP chairman stated that there were no serious talks of secession, but he did text them that "only a brief conversation with the Texas GOP in earlier work with them. Won’t come up again unless the grass roots brings it up.”

Unsurprisingly, Eathorne was heavily criticized for even entertaining the possibility of dividing the nation. The Confederacy in the United States was formed in 1861 immediately following Abraham Lincoln's presidential win. Seven states would initially secede from the Union and later, four more would follow. Many pro-Trump supporters have been teasing a second Civil War and as the presidential inauguration approaches, Washington D.C. has shut down.

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