Staunch conservative Republican DickCheney, Vice President for George W. Bush . said Friday he will join his daughter, former GOP Congress member and party leader Liz Cheney, as another member of the party of the elephant to walk away from convicted felon Donald J. Trump and vote for Democrat Kamala Harris for President in the November election.
“In our nation’s 248 year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Cheney, 83, said. “After his actions trying to steal the 2020 presidential election and then using lies and violence” to keep himself in power, he can never be trusted with power again.”
Cheney adds: “We 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.”
Cheney, consdered the power behind former President Bush’s presidency, becomes the highest profile membrer of the GOP to call Trump, a court-certified sexual predator and adjudicated rapist, a domestic terrorist and fraud.
On Friday during a panel discussion at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, Ms. Cheney revealed that her father, an unapologetic partisan, would be, too.
“Dick Cheney will be voting for Kamala Harris,” Ms. Cheney said, a remarkable statement that the Cheneys themselves could not have foreseen making even four years ago.
Mr. Cheney served as White House chief of staff under President Gerald Ford; secretary of defense under President George H.W. Bush and vice president under President George W. Bush, when Mr. Cheney was the architect of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He was viewed by Democrats as such a force of darkness that he earned the nickname Darth Vader.
His announcement on Friday was only the latest reflection of how profoundly the Republican Party has shifted since Mr. Cheney was in power. Back then, his brand of conservatism — which prioritized hawkishness on foreign policy, and an unapologetic allegiance to big business and the political establishment — defined the G.O.P. Mr. Trump’s rise has changed all that, pushing the party in a more isolationist and populist direction, making the establishment into a villain and unleashing a new coarseness that now dominates Republican politics.
For Cheney and h8s daugheter, the Ja.n. 6 Capitol riot orehestrated by Trump became a step too far for Trump. Former Vice President Cheney caled Trump “a coward” and un-American and Liz Cheney put hercountry above her leadership positiom and Congressional seat to co-chair the select committee investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection that found Trump liable for sedition.
Ms. Cheney on Friday tried to frame the joint family decision to vote for the Democratic presidential nominee as something beyond party, one that had to do with country and “duty.” And she lambasted Mr. Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, as a pair of “misogynistic pigs.” Ms. Cheney explicitly rejected the idea of not voting at all, as some conservative Republicans have signaled they plan to do.
Earlier this week, Pat Toomey, the former Republican senator from Pennsylvania, said he would not be supporting Mr. Trump in the fall. But, he said, he could not vote for Ms. Harris, either.
The show of support from both Cheneys is significant for the Harris campaign, which has been pouring tens of millions of dollars into a paid media campaign targeting anti-Trump Republicans. It potentially helps create a model for deeply conservative voters reluctant to back Mr. Trump to vote for a Democrat for the first time in their lives.
While the race is close, Vice President Harris, who became the Democratic candidate after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race, is polling ahead of Trump in a growng list of battlegroound states and ranks better r in job performance.
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