Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority chief, mentioned on Tuesday that House Republican lawmakers had expressed considerations to him over whether or not Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the get together’s No. 3, might proceed in her place, feeding rising hypothesis that Ms. Cheney may very well be stripped of her management publish.

“I have heard from members concerned about her ability to carry out the job as conference chair, to carry out the message,” Mr. McCarthy mentioned on Fox. “We all need to be working as one, if we’re able to win the majority.”

Mr. McCarthy’s remarks had been a placing escalation of a rising feud pitting Ms. Cheney — who has been vocal in criticizing Donald J. Trump and repudiating his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen — in opposition to House Republicans, lots of whom have parroted such assertions and embraced the previous president.

Mr. McCarthy selected Mr. Trump’s favourite information program, “Fox and Friends,” because the venue for his newest airing of the get together’s considerations about Ms. Cheney, whose destiny has change into a bellwether for the way forward for the get together. His determination to take action mirrored rising resentment amongst rank-and-file Republicans about Ms. Cheney’s dedication to proceed calling out Mr. Trump and members of their get together.

When a gaggle of pro-Trump Republicans in the House moved in February to take away Ms. Cheney from her management function, citing her determination to vote to question Mr. Trump, Mr. McCarthy defended her in a speech simply forward of the secret-ballot vote, which she received overwhelmingly. But in the weeks that adopted, Mr. McCarthy seems to have soured on her as Ms. Cheney has continued to contradict him, mainly on whether or not Mr. Trump ought to proceed to play a number one function in the get together.

The turning level got here final week at a convention retreat in Orlando, the place Ms. Cheney advised reporters that any lawmaker who led the bid to invalidate President Biden’s electoral victory in Congress ought to be disqualified from working for president. She additionally broke with main Republicans on the scope of a proposed impartial fee to analyze the Jan. 6 riot, saying it ought to be narrowly centered on the assault on the Capitol, not on Antifa and Black Lives Matter protests, as Mr. McCarthy and others in the get together have insisted.

Some lawmakers are so sure that the convention will name a vote to strip Ms. Cheney of her place that they’ve begun floating names of Republicans who might change her in the third-ranking publish. That endeavor can be fraught. Mindful of the optics of changing the one girl in management with one other man, Republicans are eyeing selecting a lady.

Several of them are bullish on the prospect of Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, an outspoken rising star inside the get together who has toiled to extend the variety of ladies in the get together, however it isn’t clear she would have an interest in the job. Also cited as a chance was Representative Jackie Walorski of Indiana, who as the highest Republican on the Ethics Committee earlier this yr efficiently balanced the job of condemning Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s previous conspiratorial statements whereas arguing she shouldn’t be kicked off her committees.