November 29, 2023, 10:25am
Look, we’re no huge fans of the Cheney family around here, but Liz Cheney’s steadfast commitment to calling a thing what it is—namely, the almost total moral bankruptcy of a Republican Party that prefers power over principle and a man called Trump—is refreshing, if not admirable.
As Cheney reveals in her forthcoming book—the eyerollingly titled Oath and Honor (12/5)—per this CNN exclusive:
…[some] 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.
Furthermore:
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.’”
If, by some miracle, the better parts of American democracy survive the hollow, self-interested cruelties of the Trump Era, I will look forward to the exculpatory Ken Burns documentary, The Things We Did For Orange Jesus.
