Truth tellers do not appear to be of great value to the Republican party, an observation of mine echoed by Fox News correspondent Chris Wallace. It seems an allegiance to parroting inane conspiracy theories has more currency. This saddens me as we need to listen to courageous truth tellers who risk a great deal in so doing.

In support of this contention, Jason Lemon of Newsweek wrote the following piece “Chris Wallace Calls Out Republicans for ‘More Visible Outrage’ at Cheney Than at Greene” which incredulously frames how low the new Trump party had fallen.

“Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace called out Republican lawmakers for showing ‘more visible outrage’ at GOP Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming for voting to impeach former President Donald Trump than at Georgia’s freshman GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene‘s promotion of bizarre conspiracy theories. Some pro-Trump Republicans in the House of Representatives have called for Cheney’s removal from her No. 3 leadership position as chair of the House Republican Conference following her January 13 impeachment vote. Meanwhile, few GOP lawmakers have expressed public outrage following multiple reports on Greene’s past promotion of unfounded conspiracy theories and support for violence against fellow lawmakers on social media.

‘You’ve got a situation right now where there is more visible outrage inside the GOP over Liz Cheney, a member of [Republican] leadership voting to impeach the [former] president over—rather than some of these wild conspiracy theories being espoused by Marjorie Taylor Greene,’ Wallace pointed out during his show Sunday. He suggested that Republicans should take action against Greene and asked whether she should potentially be expelled from Congress or removed from committees. ‘What are their options here?’

Wallace asked panelist Susan Page, the Washington bureau chief for USA Today. ‘I think it tells you a lot about where the Republican Party is right now,’ Page responded. GOP House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy plans to have a meeting with Greene regarding her incendiary social media posts and bizarre claims. ‘These comments are deeply disturbing and Leader McCarthy plans to have a conversation with the Congresswoman about them,’ Mark Bednar, a spokesperson for McCarthy, told Axios last week. Representative Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican who joined the nine other House Republicans in voting to impeach Trump, said Sunday that he’d support removing Greene from committee assignments, but he pushed back against expelling her from Congress altogether.”

Note, Senator Mitch McConnell aired some comments following Wallace’s piece calling Greene a “cancer” on the Republican party. McConnell’s comments are welcome, but they are somewhat forced being this late with respect to Greene. And, in my view, he was too calculating in any criticism of the former president when Trump parroted inane conspiracy theories along with other untruths.

I read McConnell did not take the former president’s election fraud claims seriously, so a vacuum was left by Republicans refusing to call out the former president for his staged fraud claims. Quite simply, when you do not stand up to a bully or let lies stand without pushback, the bullying and lying will continue. Rep. Liz Cheney, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Sen. Ben Sasse and others did, but they are being vilified and even threatened by the MAGA base. The question the base needs to ask, is these people knew they would be vilified for speaking out, so why did they run that risk? Following the crowd is easy. Speaking hard truths is not. We need hard truths from our leaders.

Keith Wilson, Charlotte, Independent