Kevin McCarthy Said He Met With ‘Depressed’ Trump After Jan. 6 Because He ‘Stopped Eating,’ Liz Cheney Writes

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) revealed in her memoir Oath and Honor that after former president Donald Trump’s defeat in the 2020 reelection and departure from office in January 2021, he experienced a deep state of despair and was allegedly “not eating.” 

This information was divulged to Cheney by the then-Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California) when he attempted to justify his visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. McCarthy’s solidarity with the ex-president has been widely regarded as a pivotal moment in the revitalization of Trump’s political prospects.

McCarthy had strongly criticized Trump for his role in the attack on the Capitol on January 6 and even suggested that Trump resign.

However, McCarthy reversed his stance and effectively absolved the former president.

Cheney, known for her role as one of the most outspoken anti-Trump Republicans, recounted how McCarthy justified his visit on January 28 as an act of compassion towards a defeated ally.

Cheney expressed her disbelief when she first saw the photograph of McCarthy and Trump together, to the point where she initially believed it to be a fabricated image.

She wrote, “‘Not even Kevin McCarthy could be this craven,’  I thought,” and followed up, “I was wrong.” 

When Cheney questioned McCarthy about his decision to rehabilitate a twice-impeached former president who had just attempted to overturn an election he had lost, McCartney attempted to downplay the meeting and said he had already been in Florida when Mr. Trump’s staff called. He told Cheney, “Trump’s not eating, so they asked me to come see him.”

“What?” she recalled in response. “You went to Mar-a-Lago because Trump’s not eating?”

“Yeah, he’s really depressed,” McCarthy said.

With her book subtitled, A Memoir and a Warning, Cheney, emphasizes the urgency of her anti-Trump message in visceral descriptions and makes clear Trump poses a significant and immediate threat to the United States were he to appear on the ballot in the future November election. 

Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and a prominent conservative figure in her own right, was once on a trajectory to become House Speaker potentially.

However, her opposition to Trump and her role as vice chair of the House committee in the investigation of his involvement in the January 6 attack came at a cost.

She lost her leadership position, which led to the loss of her seat in a Republican primary last year.

Cheney remains steadfast in her commitment to prevent Trump’s return to the Oval Office.

Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump, said in response to the book via email, “Liz Cheney is a loser who is now lying in order to sell a book that either belongs in the discount bargain bin in the fiction section of the bookstore or should be repurposed as toilet paper…These are nothing more than completely fabricated stories because President Trump is the clear front-runner to be the Republican nominee and the strongest candidate to beat Crooked Joe Biden.”

Also in her book, Cheney revealed that one GOP congressman referred to Trump as “orange Jesus.”