Since everyone is opining today about the legacy of Lindsay Graham, I’ll add my two cents by sharing some relevant excerpts from my upcoming book. In Chapter 5 (“Christian Privilege”), I contrast Graham’s shameful re-normalization of Trump after the January 6th insurrection with the courage of Liz Cheney, who truly broke away from Trump.

But the point of this chapter is not to praise Cheney — it’s the opposite. Because, as a member of the bipartisan House Select Committee on the insurrection, she did something that ended up helping Trump bigly. You’ll have to read the book for the full untold story, but I consider it one of the most wrongheaded and consequential political cover-ups in recent history and a case study in Christian privilege.

So, for my humble contribution to the discourse on Senator Graham’s legacy (and as a shameless plug for my book, No Prophets: The Fight to Save Democracy from Christian Nationalism, which is coming Aug. 18th and is available now for pre-order), I give you these excerpts starting at p. 94:

For a few fleeting days after January 6th, Trump’s spell over the Republican Party was broken. You could see it in the eyes of those who had enabled him: if not genuine contrition, at least regret. A reckoning was at hand. And then it wasn’t.

Watching congressional Republicans’ moral courage curdle into cowardly retreat was one of the most pathetic spectacles I’ve ever witnessed. Some offered sheepish semi-rebukes, hoping to buy some time while they waited to see if the tyrant had finally fallen. Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell delivered a scathing floor speech declaring Trump “practically and morally responsible” for the insurrection—but that speech came just minutes after he voted to acquit in Trump’s impeachment trial. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy briefly blamed Trump for the coup. But nothing says “I meant what I said” like jetting off to Mar-a-Lago two weeks later for a grinning photo op. And then there was Senator Lindsey Graham delivering a Cirque du Soleil-level contortion act: opening with a dramatic “count me out,” then folding himself neatly into the familiar Trump-as-victim pose (“he was told things that just weren’t true”), before sticking the dismount by slinking back to the golf course with Trump as if nothing had happened.

Which made my colleague Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) such a refreshing exception. Before Trump’s hostile takeover of the GOP, Cheney was on the rise. She was right-wing royalty, the daughter of a vice president with unassailable conservative credentials, including hawkish foreign policy just like her dad. Elected by her peers to chair the House Republican Conference, Cheney had quickly become the third-highest ranking Republican in the House. No one had more to gain from toeing the party line in early 2021 than she did.

But unlike so many others after January 6th, she unapologetically broke ranks with Trump. On January 13, 2021, she was one of only ten House Republicans to vote to impeach Trump for inciting the insurrection. And it cost her. She narrowly survived a February attempt to strip her of her leadership post, and under pressure from Trump, Kevin McCarthy—once a defender—was caught on a hot mic saying, “I’ve had it with her.” Cheney’s response was defiant: “I will not sit back and watch in silence” as the Republican Party is led “down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president’s crusade to undermine our democracy.”  Cheney wanted to draw a line, in hopes of stirring others in her party to rediscover their conscience. Knowing the long odds and the risk, she did it anyway.

…With McCarthy now re-tethered to Trump, the response from House Republicans was predictable: Virtually all of them denounced the Select Committee except for two, Rep. Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, both of whom Pelosi appointed to the committee. McCarthy branded them “Pelosi Republicans.” The Republican National Committee censured them. Within a little over a year, both would be out of politics. Cheney was ousted by a Trump-backed challenger, and Kinzinger read the writing on the wall and opted not to run again.

Over an eighteen-month period starting in the summer of 2021, the Select Committee conducted an exhaustive investigation cataloging not only the events of January 6th but also tracing the full arc of the conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election with forensic precision. At the outset, Thompson appointed Cheney vice chair, an acknowledgment that her leadership would anchor the committee’s claims to bipartisan credibility. Committee members and staff interviewed more than a thousand witnesses, subpoenaed records, combed through over a million documents, and pieced together a timeline that revealed not just the chaos, but the planning and coordination.

… Throughout the investigation and the public rollout of the final report, Liz Cheney led with poise and grit. She stood tall. She told the truth. Just not all of it.

For the rest of the story, and many more, pre-order your copy of No Prophets now, wherever great books are sold!