GOP congressman called Trump ‘the orange Jesus’ amid efforts to overturn election, new book claims

Former Rep Liz Cheney described her fellow Republicans as showing ‘cowardice’ in the face of Mr Trump’s takeover of the party

Former Republican Representative Liz Cheney called Donald Trump's supporters in Congress "enablers and collaborators" in a new book, and revealed that at least one member called the former president "orange Jesus."

Ms Cheney reportedly does not hold back from critiquing her former colleagues in the new book, Oath and Honor, according to CNN.

She claims that her fellow Republican lawmakers were "willing to violate their oath to the Constitution out of political expediency and loyalty to Donald Trump."

The former congresswoman called the former president "the most dangerous man ever to inhabit the Oval Office", and blasted her fellow Republicans for their "cowardice."

Both former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his replacement, Congressman Mike Johnson, are mentioned by name in the book, and not in a flattering manner. She claims Mr McCarthy knew Mr Trump lost the 2020 election but stuck by him all the same, and painted Mr Johnson as someone who "appeared especially susceptible to flattery from Trump and aspired to being anywhere in Trump's orbit."

She recalls an incident several weeks after the Capitol riot during which Mr McCarthy allegedly paid a secret visit to a despondent Mr Trump at his Mar-a-Lago golf resort because he "wasn't eating."

“What? You went to Mar-a-Lago because Trump’s not eating?” she recalls asking Mr McCarthy.

“Yeah, he’s really depressed,” Mr McCarthy reportedly replied.

A spokesperson for Mr McCarthy told CNN: “For Cheney, first it was Trump Derangement Syndrome, and now apparently it’s also McCarthy Derangement Syndrome.”

Though it seems ancient history now, there was a time in the lead-up to the 2016 election during which numerous Republicans — including Senators Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham — used similarly apocalyptic language to describe what a Trump presidency would bring to the US.

Ms Cheney describeds watching her colleagues transform from critics to sycophants as it became clear that Mr Trump had won the hearts of America's reactionary voters.

She recalled a GOP conference call during which House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan acted "dismissive" of the legal processes for challenging the 2020 election results, noting that he "didn't seem to think the rules mattered".

"The only thing that matters is winning," she claims Mr Jordan said.

Mr Jordan's spokesman, Russel Dye, told CNN that "Chairman Jordan was always concerned about the legal process for the 2020 election and how states unconstitutionally changed their laws unilaterally."

Just before the Capitol riot, she recalled GOP members being asked to line up in the cloakroom and sign electoral vote objection sheets corresponding to the states where Mr Trump believed he had actually won. She wrote that members knew the exercise was a "farce" and a "public display of fealty to Donald Trump."

“Among them was Republican Congressman Mark Green of Tennessee,” Ms 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’”.

The Independent has reached out to Mr Green's office for comment.