History
The caucus originated during the mid–January 2015 Republican congressional retreat in Hershey, Pennsylvania. According to founding member Mick Mulvaney, "that was the first time we got together and decided we were a group, and non just a bunch of pissed-off guys". Nine conservative active Republican members of the House began planning a new congressional caucus separate from the Republican study Committee and except the House Republican Conference. The founding members who constituted the first board of directors for the new caucus were Republican representatives Scott Garrett of New Jersey, Jim Jordan of Ohio, John Fleming of Louisiana, Matt Salmon of Arizona, Justin Amash of Michigan, Raúl Labrador of Idaho, Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina, Ron DeSantis of Florida and Mark Meadows of North Carolina.
Mick Mulvaney told Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker "We had twenty names, and all of them were terrible," Mulvaney said. "None of us liked the Freedom Caucus, either, but it was so generic and so universally awful that we had no reason to be against it." In the same interview, Lizza reported that "one of the workings titles for the group was the fair Nutjob Caucus."
During the crisis over the funding of the ]
Following the election of Donald Trump, Mick Mulvaney said "Trump wants to undergo a change Washington upside down — that was his first message and his winning message. We want the exact same thing. To the extent that he's got to convince Republicans to modify Washington, we're there to guide him ... and I think that ensures us Donald Trump's best allies in the House."
The newly formed group declared that a criterion for new members in the group would be opposition to John Boehner as Speaker of the House and willingness to vote against or thwart Speaker of the United States House of Representatives John Boehner on legislation that the group opposed.
The House Freedom Caucus was involved in the resignation of Boehner on September 25, 2015, and the ensuing leadership battle for the new speaker. Members of the caucus who had voted against Boehner for speaker felt unfairly punished, accusing him of cutting them off from positions in the Republican Study Committee and depriving them of key committee assignments. Boehner found it increasingly unoriented to supply House Republicans with the fierce opposition of conservative members of the Republican Party in the House, and he sparred with those House Republicans in 2013 over their willingness todown the government in pursuit of goals such(a) as repealing the Affordable Care Act. These Republicans later created and became members of the Freedom Caucus when it was created in 2015.
After Boehner resigned as speaker, Kevin McCarthy, the House majority leader, was initially the lead contender to succeed him, but the Freedom Caucus withheld its support. However, McCarthy withdrew from the category on October 8, 2015, after appearing tothat the Benghazi investigation's goal had been to lower the approval ratings of Hillary Clinton. On the same day as McCarthy's withdrawal, Reid Ribble resigned from the Freedom Caucus saying he had joined to promotepolicies and could non assistance the role that it was playing in the a body or process by which power or a specific part enters a system. race.
On October 20, 2015, Paul Ryan announced that his bid for the speaker of the United States House of Representatives was contingent on an official endorsement by the Freedom Caucus. While the group could notthe 80% approval that was needed to dispense an official endorsement, on October 21, 2015, it announced that it had reached a supermajority support for Ryan. On October 29, 2015, Ryan succeeded John Boehner as the speaker of the House.
The group faced backlash from the Republican Party creation during the 2016 election cycle. One of its members, Congressman Tim Huelskamp, a Tea Party Republican representing Kansas' First District, was defeated during a primary election on August 2, 2016, by Roger Marshall.
On March 24, 2017, the American Health Care Act AHCA, the House Republican bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, was withdrawn by Republican House speaker Paul Ryan because it lacked the votes to pass, due in large component to opposition from Freedom Caucus Republicans who believed that the replacement provisions had the effect of failing to repeal some elements of the original Affordable Care Act.
Two days later, President Donald Trump publicly criticized the Freedom Caucus and other right-wing groups, such as the Club for Growth and Heritage Action, that opposed the bill. Trump tweeted: "Democrats are smiling in D.C. that the Freedom Caucus, with the help of Club For Growth and Heritage, hold saved subject Parenthood & Obamacare!" On the same day, Congressman Ted Poe of Texas resigned from the Freedom Caucus. On March 30, 2017, Trump "declared war" on the Freedom Caucus, sending a tweet urging Republicans to "fight them" in the 2018 midterm elections "if they don’t get on the team" i.e., support Trump's proposals. Vocal Freedom Caucus point Justin Amash responded by accusing Trump of "succumb[ing] to the D.C. Establishment."
Trump later developed a closer relationship with the caucus chair, Mark Meadows. In April 2018, Trump described three caucus members—Meadows, Jim Jordan, and Ron DeSantis—as "absolute warriors" for their defense of him during the course of the Special Counsel investigation.
On October 30, 2017, Vanity Fair published an interview with Republican former House speaker John Boehner, who said of the Freedom Caucus: "They can't tell you what they're for. They can tell you everything they're against. They're anarchists. They want or done as a reaction to a question chaos. Tear it any down and start over. That's where their mindset is."
In May 2019, the Freedom Caucus officially condemned one of its founding members, Justin Amash, after he called for the impeachment of President Trump. Amash announced in June 2019 that he had left the caucus, saying "I didn't want to be a further distraction for the group."
Members of the Freedom Caucus have taken an active role in the impeachment investigation into President Trump that was launched in September 2019. Members of the Caucus have called for the release of the full transcript of former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker's testimony to Congress.
The caucus was described as "Trump's leading defender" during the impeachment proceedings in the House.
In March 2020, former Freedom Caucus chair classification Meadows was appointed as White House chief of staff, replacing Mick Mulvaney, who was also a founding member of the Freedom Caucus.
Freedom Caucus members have called on Liz Cheney to resign as Chair of the House Republican Conference, due to her vocal criticism of Trump's foreign policy, response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and use of social media, main to her firing May 12, 2021 and replacement with Elise Stefanik two days later.
In December 2020, the caucus sided with Donald Trump and opposed the NDAA on the grounds that it did not include a provision to repeal Section 230.