“It’s not a new hobby for Jim Jordan and his friends to try to stir up shit within leadership with the threat of bouncing somebody,” said Brendan Buck, a former top aide to former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), a leader who was hardly well-liked by the party’s far-right flank. “We’ve heard this kind of thing before.”

Many in the conference feel that these instigators want to fight just for fighting’s sake, less interested in actually removing Cheney than in earning chits with the MAGA base as Trump’s truest remaining defenders in a squishy GOP. “It’s a show for people who want it to be a show,” said one GOP aide.

Leaders of the anti-Cheney push have told Capitol Hill press that they have well over a hundred supporters, but those supporters haven’t been named. Jordan’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment on the state of the effort and his involvement in it.

Many observers believe that there are plenty of GOP lawmakers who will agitate for a vote in order to look sufficiently pro-Trump, but will back down and support Cheney when the time comes. “I do think there is a chance she could be ousted, but I think her position is stronger than most people assume,” said former Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), a Trump-critical Republican who was defeated in 2018.