Former Vice President Dick Cheney said that he is endorsing Democratic nominee Kamala Harris over former President Donald Trump in the presidential election.
Cheney, the father of former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), served as Republican vice president under the George W. Bush administration.
“As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution,” the elder Cheney said in a statement. “That is why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.”
In his statement, he was critical of Trump for what he suggested was the former president’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, echoing comments he made in 2022 when endorsing his daughter in her House reelection bid that she ultimately lost later that year.
Cheney’s comments were made just days after Liz Cheney announced she is backing Harris. During her final term in office as a House member, Liz Cheney spearheaded the congressional chamber’s investigation into Trump’s activity leading up to and on the day of the Jan. 6, 2021, protest at the U.S. Capitol.
The younger Cheney said in a video posted on social media last week that “as a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this … I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”
The former vice president’s endorsement was welcomed by the Harris campaign.
Jen O’Malley Dillon, Harris’s campaign chair, released a statement Saturday, saying, “The Vice President is proud to have the support of Vice President Cheney, and deeply respects his courage to put country over party.”
Dick Cheney, 83, has made few public appearances over recent years. He has dealt with heart issues since his 40s and underwent a heart transplant in 2012.
In response to his endorsement of Harris, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the elder Cheney was part of an administration that initiated “Endless, Nonsensical Wars, wasting Lives and Trillions of Dollars.”
“I am the Peace President, and only I will stop World War III!” Trump wrote.
The Republican presidential nominee noted in his post that Dick Cheney, as vice president, was unable to get a former Bush adviser pardoned.
“They couldn’t get Scooter Libby, who did so much for them … PARDONED. I did it,” Trump wrote.
Convicted in 2007 as part of an investigation focused on the leak of a CIA officer’s identity, Libby was sentenced to 30 months in prison. In 2018, Trump pardoned the former official, saying that the time that “hopefully, this full pardon will help rectify a very sad portion of his life.”
Last month, former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2020, announced she was backing Trump just days after independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he was suspending his campaign to endorse the former president.
The Trump campaign confirmed to The Epoch Times in August that Kennedy and Gabbard were joining Trump’s transition team.
Over the weekend, former President George W. Bush indicated that he will not make any endorsement for the 2024 presidential election. A spokesperson for the Republican former president’s family said that neither Bush nor his wife, Laura, will say how they will vote in the upcoming election and will decline to make an endorsement.
“He retired from presidential politics many years ago,” the Bush spokesman said in a statement.
Former Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Jimmy Carter, all Democrats, have said they are endorsing Harris. President Biden, who announced in late July that he isn’t seeking reelection, immediately threw his support behind her.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, meanwhile, also has indicated in several interviews that he will not be voting for Trump, his former boss.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times