Kamala Harris “Proud” To Have Dick Cheney’s Vote, VP’s Team Says After Ex-VP Offers Support Over Trump — Update

Ted Johnson and Dominic Patten
·4-min read

UPDATED, with Cheney statement & Kamala Harris statement: Former Vice President Dick Cheney will be voting for Kamala Harris in the November election, his daughter Liz Cheney said today. The announcement by the former Wyoming Congresswoman was soon followed by confirmation by the ex-VP himself, and then follow up with words of thanks by the current vice president.

“Dick Cheney will be voting for Kamala Harris,” Liz Cheney said at the Texas Tribune Festival, where she was participating in a Q&A with The Atlantic’s Mark Leibovich.

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Her father later released a statement, saying that “there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again.”

The elder Cheney added, “As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution. That is why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.”

Later on Friday, the Harris campaign had a statement of its own that would have seem impossible just a few months ago in what has proven to be an almost impossible-to-believe election so far.

“The Vice President is proud to have the support of Vice President Cheney, and deeply respects his courage to put country over party,”  Jen O’Malley Dillon, one of the top aides of the 49th VP said of the 46th VP.

“He joins hundreds of Republicans who are backing the Vice President and her patriotic vision of America over former President Trump, because, as Vice President Cheney said, the very future of our republic is at stake in this election,”  Harris-Walz Campaign Chair Dillon added, noting the words of the GOP DC insider fighter once proudly called Darth Vader. “For every voter who cares about America and understands the fundamental threat Donald Trump poses to our democracy and our Constitution, this campaign has a home for you. Vice President Harris will be a president for all Americans – whether Republican, Democrat, independent, or none of the above – and she will keep working to earn the support of every American

Liz Cheney announced earlier this week that she would be voting for Harris, warning of the perils of returning Donald Trump to the White House.

As Liz Cheney was running for reelection in Wyoming in 2022, her father taped a commercial in which he also warned of Trump. Liz Cheney lost the primary to a challenger backed by Trump and Republican leaders, including Kevin McCarthy. She had been stripped of her GOP leadership role in the House because of her opposition to the former president.

In her remarks earlier this week, Liz Cheney said that it was not only important to oppose Trump, but to support Harris rather than write in a name, as some traditional anti-Trump conservatives have done in previous cycles.

Cheney and her father have had sharp policy differences with the Biden administration, and both have been long supporters of pro-life causes. But she has said that those have to be set aside this election because of the threat that Trump poses to democracy.

The idea that Dick Cheney would back the Democratic presidential nominee would be been unthinkable two decades ago, when he was vice president. Back then, he was reviled by Democrats for his role in orchestrating the George W. Bush administration’s war on terror policies and invasion of Iraq.

Cheney served as vice president from 2001 to 2009. Bush has not weighed in on the 2024 election, but told People magazine that in the 2020 election, he wrote in the name of Condoleeza Rice, his former secretary of state. Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, has said that he won’t be voting for him, but indicated that he would not vote for Harris either.

At the event, Liz Cheney said that she also was endorsing Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) in his bid to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who is seeking a third term.

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