Liz Cheney had to tell a colleague, ‘I’m not your girlfriend.’ Her new book tells us why

By Terri Rupar

Originally published by The 19th

Liz Cheney’s book, Oath and Honor, offers a lot of details about the effort to hold former President Donald Trump accountable after his attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 election, as well as the many ways now-departing Rep. Kevin McCarthy tried to appease him.

It also sheds light on what it’s like to be a woman in Congress, at least on the Republican side.

When Cheney first joined the House in 2017, she writes, Rep. Jim Jordan told her she should join the far-right House Freedom Caucus. His pitch: “We don’t have any women, and we need one.”

Cheney, a staunch conservative from one of the reddest states in the country, passed.

The book, which was released Tuesday, has put in the spotlight the role of Cheney as she bucked most of the other elected members of her party, working to impeach Trump; collaborating with mostly Democrats to interview witnesses who could shed light on what happened on Jan. 6, 2021; and making sure those findings got in front of the American people.