The loss of life of former Vice President Dick Cheney solid a highlight on his sophisticated legacy and the methods during which he and his household have been ostracized from the Trump-led GOP.
Cheney was some of the highly effective figures in politics throughout his time in Washington, having served as a congressman, White Home chief of workers, Protection secretary and vp. However slightly than spending his last years as an elder statesman of the GOP, the Cheney title turned poisonous in a celebration that’s now dominated by President Trump.
Throughout his 2016 marketing campaign, Trump rejected the normal GOP overseas coverage that Cheney had helped set up throughout his many years in energy. The Trump-Cheney relationship soured for good after the 2020 election, when each the previous vp and then-Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) decried Trump as a menace to democracy over his makes an attempt to overturn his electoral defeat.
In one in every of his last public acts, former Vice President Cheney solid his poll for former Vice President Kamala Harris, then the Democratic presidential nominee, in 2024.
“It wasn’t just personal, it was a clash of worldviews,” stated Matt Dallek, a professor of political administration at George Washington College. “Cheney had the opposite view of Trump when it comes to foreign policy.”
Dallek stated the break up between the extra hawkish wing of the Republican Get together represented by Cheney and the anti-interventionist wing led by Trump endures even in Trump’s second time period.
“Then of course there were the attacks on Liz Cheney, the personal attacks, the destruction of Liz Cheney’s political career by Trump and MAGA, and Jan. 6,” Dallek stated. “We shouldn’t underestimate how repulsed the Cheney family was by Trump’s actions leading up to and during Jan. 6.”
The White Home on Tuesday lowered flags to half-staff across the constructing however in any other case provided no proclamation marking Cheney’s loss of life. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated Trump was “aware” of Cheney’s loss of life, however the president didn’t weigh in throughout a day on which he had no public occasions.
Cheney was an influential and later controversial determine in Washington politics throughout a number of many years. He served as Protection secretary in the course of the George H.W. Bush administration amid the launch of the conflict within the Persian Gulf.
And he was the notorious architect of the U.S. coming into the Iraq Conflict beneath former President George W. Bush, claiming weapons of mass destruction have been in Saddam Hussein’s possession. That evaluation finally was confirmed to be not true.
The previous vp additionally argued in favor of broad govt authority, insisting it was essential to preserve the nation secure. That broad view of govt energy has echoed by way of Trump’s second time period, as he carries out army strikes on boats allegedly carrying medication within the Caribbean.
Cheney was deeply unpopular upon his exit from workplace, and it helped lay the inspiration for a way Trump appealed to voters in the course of the 2016 marketing campaign. A Pew Analysis Middle ballot discovered Cheney left workplace with a 31 % approval score.
Trump in some ways capitalized throughout his 2016 marketing campaign on the discontent with the overseas coverage institution that Cheney represented. Trump pledged throughout his first presidential marketing campaign to finish “eternally wars” and cut back U.S. involvement overseas, although it was the Biden administration that formally ended the U.S. conflict in Afghanistan.
Cheney endorsed Trump in 2016, and Liz Cheney was a Trump ally for a lot of his first time period. However Trump’s private animus towards the 2 escalated starting in 2021.
Liz Cheney was one in every of a handful of Republicans who voted to question Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol. She later served on the particular Home panel that investigated the assault, drawing extra ire from Trump and his allies.
Dick Cheney appeared in a 2022 marketing campaign advert for his daughter during which he slammed Trump as a “coward” for pushing false claims in regards to the 2020 election.
In 2024, Cheney endorsed Harris and warned Trump was an existential menace to the nation.
“In our nation’s 248-year historical past, there has by no means been a person who’s a larger menace to our republic than Donald Trump,” Cheney stated in an announcement on the time. “He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution.”
Harris on Tuesday remembered Cheney as “a figure who, with a strong sense of dedication, gave so much of his life to the country he loved.”
Republicans, together with some staunch Trump allies, additionally paid their respects to Cheney and praised his prolonged report of public service.
“Even when we have political differences as somebody later in life, you have to honor the sacrifices and the service they gave to their country,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) stated at a Tuesday press convention.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) described Cheney as “one of the smartest people I’ve ever known.”
“On foreign policy, he was unashamedly aggressive against the forces who meant harm to the United States. He had a unique ability to handle criticism from all corners of the political spectrum,” Graham stated in an announcement. “This is best explained by his tremendous sense of confidence in who he was and what he believed. When that self-confidence clashed with members of both parties, he was unshaken.”
