In her new book, former Rep. Liz Cheney paints a scathing portrait of the Republican Party, condemning her former colleagues and party leaders as “enablers and collaborators,” who after the 2020 election were “willing to violate their oath to the Constitution out of political expediency and loyalty to Donald Trump.”

The book, “Oath and Honor,” which was obtained exclusively by CNN ahead of its Dec. 5 release, is an unflinching account of what Cheney calls the GOP’s “cowardice,” and how so many were willing to support former President Donald Trump, who she calls “the most dangerous man ever to inhabit the Oval Office.”
Cheney delivers a particularly devastating takedown of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who she says told her that Trump knew he’d lost the election. Cheney is also critical of McCarthy’s successor, House Speaker Mike Johnson, who “appeared especially susceptible to flattery from Trump and aspired to being anywhere in Trump’s orbit,” she writes.
The book serves both as a roadmap laying out how Cheney realized in the days and weeks following the election the dangers of what Trump and his allies were trying to do to overturn the 2020 election, as well as a stark warning that she believes the checks and balances of the Constitution will not hold if Trump is reelected in 2024.
“As a nation, we can endure damaging policies for a four-year term. But we cannot survive a president willing to terminate our Constitution,” the Wyoming Republican writes.
Following Cheney’s prominent role as vice chair of the House’s January 6 committee, which uncovered critical new details about Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, her book is a first-hand account of what was going on behind the scenes — and she names names.
Drawing from real time text messages, emails, calls and meetings, as well as personal conversations, Cheney calls out her Republican colleagues as hypocrites – who knew Trump lost but did his bidding anyway – and says their complicity is a threat to democracy.
“So strong is the lure of power that men and women who had once seemed reasonable and responsible were suddenly willing to violate their oath to the Constitution out of political expediency and loyalty to Donald Trump,” Cheney writes.
Cheney has vowed to do whatever is necessary to stop Trump from returning to the White House, including leaving open the door to a 2024 presidential run herself. If Trump is the party’s nominee, Cheney has said she will leave the GOP.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung told CNN that Cheney’s book belonged “in the fiction section of the bookstore.”
“These are nothing more than completely fabricated stories,” he said.
‘The Orange Jesus’
Throughout “Oath and Honor,” Cheney describes how she saw her Republican colleagues go from condemning Trump to falling back in line and supporting his claims of election fraud.
Cheney reveals for the first time that McCarthy told her just two days after Election Day that he had talked to Trump and that Trump acknowledged he had lost the 2020 election.
“He knows it’s over,” McCarthy said, according to the book. “He needs to go through all the stages of grief.” Cheney writes that she thought to herself, those stages of grief “seemed to involve tweeting in all caps.”

When the California Republican went on Fox News that same day and said, “President Trump won this election,” Cheney writes, “McCarthy knew that what he was saying was not true.”
Cheney also exposes how other Republicans supported Trump’s election lies even when they knew better. During a GOP conference call, Cheney writes that House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan was “dismissive” of the legal process for challenging the election results and “didn’t seem to think the rules mattered.”
“The only thing that matters is winning,” Jordan said, according to Cheney.
A spokesman for Jordan, Russell Dye, told CNN, “Chairman Jordan was always concerned about the legal process for the 2020 election and how states unconstitutionally changed their laws unilaterally.”
Cheney also calls out Johnson, whose rise to the speakership came after Cheney had finished her book. Cheney recounts how Johnson pressured Republican members to support an amicus brief to throw out the election results from four states Trump had lost.
“When I confronted him with the flaws in his legal arguments,” Cheney writes, “Johnson would often concede, or say something to the effect of, ‘We just need to do this one last thing for Trump.’”
On Jan. 6, before the attack on the Capitol, Cheney describes a scene in the GOP cloakroom, where members were encouraged to sign their names on electoral vote objection sheets, lined up on a table, one for each of the states Republicans were contesting. Cheney writes most members knew “it was a farce” and “another public display of fealty to Donald Trump.”
“Among them was Republican Congressman Mark Green of Tennessee,” Cheney writes. “As he moved down the line, signing his name to the pieces of paper, Green said sheepishly to no one in particular, ‘The things we do for the Orange Jesus.’”
‘Trump’s not eating’
Cheney also accuses McCarthy of repeatedly lying and choosing the “craven” path of embracing Trump. She recounts the moment she first found out that McCarthy, fearing he had lost his ability to fundraise, secretly went to visit Trump at Mar-a-Lago just three weeks after the Jan. 6 attack.
She’s telling the truth and they know it.. I would challenge all to lie detector tests. I will if you will.. I cant understand the fear of one ignorant man. Its baffling. Tell his base go ahead, we will be at the ready..