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“Oath and Honor,” recently published by conservative Republican Liz Cheney, should be read by all who believe in the republic we call the United States. Cheney was a member of the House of Representatives and was in the Capitol building when it was stormed by a violent mob on Jan. 6, 2021. The insurrection was planned and then watched on TV by President Donald Trump and his allies. On Jan. 6, I believe he incited the crowd near the Capitol, saying, “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
Cheney, appointed by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, served on the Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the United States Capitol. On that committee, she staunchly stood up to her Republican (“MAGA”) colleagues, who were doing everything possible to defend Donald Trump. In her book (not to be a spoiler), she details the workings of the committee and the dishonorable, and sometimes illegal, activities of the Trump supporters.
At the end of the hearings, Cheney concluded that Trump “made a purposeful choice to violate his oath of office, to ignore the ongoing violence against law enforcement, to threaten our constitutional order.”
Cheney said that behavior was indefensible: “Every American must consider this: Can a president who is willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of Jan. 6 ever be trusted with any position of authority in our great nation again?”
In 1880 after his first night in the White House, John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, what is now inscribed over the fireplace in the White House state dining room: “May none but honest and wise men [or women] ever rule under this roof.”
Consider carefully the importance of the 2024 presidential election!
James McCleave
Orono
