WASHINGTON • No. 3 House Republican Liz Cheney was clinging to her post Wednesday as party leaders lined up behind an heir apparent, signaling that fallout over her clashes with former President Donald Trump was becoming too much for her to overcome.

Trump issued a statement giving his “COMPLETE and TOTAL Endorsement” to Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York to replace Cheney. Stefanik, a 36-year-old Trump loyalist who’s played an increasingly visible role within the GOP, responded quickly, highlighting his backing to colleagues who will decide her political fate.

“Thank you President Trump for your 100% support for House GOP Conference Chair. We are unified and focused on FIRING PELOSI & WINNING in 2022!” she tweeted.

The day’s events left the careers of Cheney and Stefanik seemingly racing in opposite directions, as if to highlight the fates awaiting Trump critics and backers in today’s GOP.

The question is whether the price for political survival in the party now entails standing by a former president who keeps up his narrative about a fraudulent 2020 election and whose supporters stormed the Capitol just four months ago in an attempt to disrupt the formal certification of Joe Biden’s victory.

President Biden said at the White House that the GOP is in the throes of a “significant sort of mini revolution” and said the country needs two healthy political parties.

Cheney, a daughter of Dick Cheney, who was George W. Bush’s vice president and before that a Wyoming congressman, seemed to have almost unlimited potential until this year. Her career began listing after she was among just 10 House Republicans to back Trump’s impeachment for inciting supporters to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6, when five died.

She has refused to back down on her criticism under pressure from party leaders who’ve stood by Trump. Dozens of state and local officials and judges from both parties have found no evidence to support his assertions.

Combined with a morning endorsement from No. 2 House Republican leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana and tacit support from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, the momentum behind Stefanik’s ascension was beginning to seem unstoppable. Stefanik, who represents a mammoth upstate New York district, began her House career in 2015 as a moderate Republican.

Liz Cheney

J. Scott Applewhite