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Summary
Summary
Read by Liz Cheney with 50+ audio source material clips included, Oath and Honor is a gripping first-hand account from inside the halls of Congress as Donald Trump and his enablers betrayed the American people and the Constitution--leading to the violent attack on our Capitol on January 6th, 2021--by the House Republican leader who dared to stand up to it.
In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump and many around him, including certain other elected Republican officials, intentionally breached their oath to the Constitution: they ignored the rulings of dozens of courts, plotted to overturn a lawful election, and provoked a violent attack on our Capitol. Liz Cheney, one of the few Republican officials to take a stand against these efforts, witnessed the attack first-hand, and then helped lead the Congressional Select Committee investigation into how it happened. In Oath and Honor , she tells the story of this perilous moment in our history, those who helped Trump spread the stolen election lie, those whose actions preserved our constitutional framework, and the risks we still face.
Reviews (3)
Kirkus Review
The former House Republican Conference leader's account of the tumult surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Early on, Cheney, the former Wyoming representative who helped lead the House January 6 Committee, writes, "We cannot make the grave mistake of returning Donald Trump--the man who caused January 6--to the White House, or to any position of public trust, ever again." The author provides a highly detailed account of the chaotic events that transpired from Election Day 2020 through the committee's preparation for the televised hearings (much of the final section reads like an expansive transcript of the hearings, along with commentary) to the present moment and the risks the nation still faces. Following recent titles by other Republican insiders recounting these activities--e.g., former Rep. Adam Kinzinger's Renegade--Cheney's account excels in its vivid portraits of Trump's key enablers, the most reprehensible being Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, and other members of the House Freedom Caucus, including the recently named House Speaker, Mike Johnson, who actively attempted to mislead House members with false claims about the integrity of the election. While readers will likely commend Cheney's genuine efforts to identify and aggressively oppose the threats to democracy posed by Trump during the 2020 election, what they may find sorely lacking is deeper self-reflection on her prior political views--the kind of personal history and soul-searching that distinguishes Kinzinger's book. Such a history would include any justification for her having voted for Trump in 2016 and again in 2020; after all, it's not as though his true colors weren't apparent during his first term in office--and even before. Still, Cheney's book is a useful document as we continue to sort through the ramifications of the Jan. 6 attack. An earnest dissection of the threat Trump poses to our democracy. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Liz Cheney has the receipts and is naming names. The former Wyoming congresswoman and vice-chair of the select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol has a new mission: to impress on the electorate how much damage Donald Trump has done to America's norms and values and how a repeat performance could destabilize the U.S. permanently. She begins in dramatic, you-are-there fashion, recounting the events of January 6 from inside the Capitol building. The shocking, if not surprising, brutality of that day is juxtaposed against the dismissive words and actions of most of her fellow Republicans as they defend the former president. Cheney's decision that she must, at all costs, uphold the rule of law, leads to the loss of her position in the Republican House leadership and eventually her seat in Congress. But she forges a new path when she is chosen by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to spearhead the January 6 committee. Cheney has admiring words for those like Pelosi and Cassidy Hutchinson, who went above and beyond to bring the truth to light. And she calls out those who wavered (Kevin McCarthy), dithered (Mitch McConnell), and aided and abetted (Jim Jordan), among others. The subtitle calls this book a memoir and a warning. It is riveting and strong as both.
Choice Review
Published months before the 2024 presidential election, Oath and Honor is Liz Cheney's warning of the danger another Trump presidency poses to democracy. Building on her work on the January 6th Committee, Cheney reminds readers that Trump aided and abetted the attack on the Capitol to prevent the counting of the electoral college votes that ratified President Biden's victory in the 2020 election. That millions of Trump voters and members of Congress still believe that that election was "rigged" undergirds Cheney's argument that Trump used the Big Lie to maintain power (p. 2). Furthermore, she cites Steve Bannon, who had information that "Trump had planned in advance--before a single vote was counted--to lie about the election being stolen" (p. 25). Cheney concludes that Trump's nefarious accomplishment was to convince some 40--50 million people that their nation had been stolen. For many MAGA supporters, the Big Lie has become a tenet of faith, and millions may never change their minds about this despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Cheney has written a highly persuasive book on Trump's danger to our constitutional democracy, adding to the Committee's report on how Trump carefully planned the attempted a coup on January 6. It is doubtful, however, that the book will change Trump voters' minds. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers. --Jack Robert Fischel, emeritus, Millersville University