Liz Cheney says now-Speaker Mike Johnson was a 'collaborator' in Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election

• Liz Cheney said that now-Speaker Mike Johnson was a "collaborator" in Trump's push to overturn the 2020 election.
• The ex-GOP lawmaker, who left office earlier this year, made the remarks on "CBS Sunday Morning."
• "Mike was willing time and again to ignore the rulings of the courts," she told CBS News.

Former Rep. Liz Cheney in an interview that aired on Sunday called now-House Speaker Mike Johnson a "collaborator" in President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Cheney, during a conversation with CBS News correspondent John Dickerson on "CBS Sunday Morning," said that the Louisiana Republican's support of Trump's 2020 election claims and his push to oppose the January 2021 certification of now-President Joe Biden's wins in Arizona and Pennsylvania showed that the lawmaker was "absolutely" focused on aiding Trump.

"If you look at what Donald Trump is trying to do, he can't do it by himself," the former Wyoming congresswoman said. "He has to have collaborators. And the story of Mike Johnson is a story of a collaborator."

Johnson, who was elected to the House in 2016 and became speaker in October 2023 after far-right Republicans led a revolt that ousted Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California from the role, was as a central figure in the GOP congressional effort backing a Texas lawsuit that aimed to overturn the results in four key swing states. (The US Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit.)

Cheney in the CBS interview also expanded on her relationship with Johnson.

"Mike and I were good friends," the former House Republican Conference chairwoman said. "But what I learned was that in fact he was operating in a way that was dangerous."

"It was dangerous because what Mike was doing was taking steps he knew to be wrong, doing things that he knew to have no basis in fact or law or the Constitution," she continued. "Mike was willing time and again to ignore the rulings of the courts, to ignore what state and federal courts had done and said about the elections in these states in order to attempt to do Donald Trump's bidding."

Johnson's office in a statement to CBS News disputed Cheney's comments regarding the 2020 presidential election.

"Unfortunately, Ms. Cheney's new book does not present an accurate portrayal of those events," the statement read. "And while he does not plan to purchase a copy of 'Oath and Honor,' Speaker Johnson wishes former Rep. Cheney and her family the best in her future endeavors."

Cheney, a former vice chair of the House January 6 committee who lost the Wyoming Republican primary to now-Rep. Harriet Hageman last year, has been perhaps Trump's most outspoken GOP critic since the riot at the US Capitol. She was one of 10 House Republicans who in January 2021 voted to impeach Trump for incitement of insurrection for his role in the attack that day.

Her forthcoming book will be released on December 5.