CHEYENNE, Wyoming: Former Vice President Dick Cheney, a lifelong Republican, will vote for Kamala Harris for president, he announced Friday.
Liz Cheney, who herself endorsed Harris on Wednesday, first announced her father’s endorsement when asked by Mark Leibovich of The Atlantic magazine during an onstage interview at The Texas Tribune Festival in Austin.
“Wow,” Leibovich replied as the audience cheered.
Like his daughter, Dick Cheney has been an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump, notably during Liz Cheney’s ill-fated reelection campaign in 2022.
Dick Cheney put out a statement Friday confirming his endorsement, which read almost entirely as opposition to Trump rather than support of Harris.
“He can never be trusted with power again,” the statement said. “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.”
Trump responded on his Truth Social platform by calling the former vice president “an irrelevant RINO, along with his daughter.” The acronym stands for “Republican in name only.”
Asked for comment, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said, “Who is Liz Cheney?”
The campaign confirmed Cheung was being sarcastic by also pointing to a comment Liz Cheney posted online four years ago in which she called Harris a “radical liberal.”
Dick Cheney, 83, has made few if any public appearances over the past year or more. He has dealt with heart issues since his 40s and underwent a heart transplant in 2012.
Dick Cheney’s statement Friday was similar to a 2022 campaign ad for Liz Cheney as she sought a fourth term as Wyoming’s lone congressperson. In it, he called Trump a “coward” for trying to “steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him.”
The ad did little good for his daughter in a deep-red state that once held the Cheney family dear but is now thoroughly in Trump’s corner. By a more than 2-to-1 margin, Liz Cheney lost her Republican primary to Trump-endorsed attorney Harriet Hageman.
Dick Cheney has been friends with Democrats over the years but never supported one for president.
Both Cheneys backed Trump in 2016, but after Liz Cheney criticized Trump foreign policy decisions and Trump criticized the “endless wars” in Afghanistan and Iraq launched when Dick Cheney was vice president, their support waned.
If either Cheney supported Trump in 2020, they were mum about it. Meanwhile, their home state of Wyoming that year delivered Trump his widest margin of victory.
By 2021, Liz Cheney’s vote to impeach Trump and her investigation into him for the 2021 US Capitol riot made them irredeemable to Trump — and soon most of the GOP.
There were exceptions. One was Cheney ally Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, a Republican Trump critic who earlier this year endorsed Biden and spoke in support of Harris at the Democratic National Convention in August.
Several other top Republicans have come out in support of Harris while some, including Sen. Mitt Romney and former Vice President Mike Pence, say they won’t be voting for Trump.
Of them only Romney, who is not seeking reelection, is still in office.
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Former US Vice President Dick Cheney, a lifelong Republican, says he will vote for Kamala Harris
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Former US Vice President Dick Cheney, a lifelong Republican, says he will vote for Kamala Harris
- Cheney, who was VP from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush, says Republican candidate and former president Donald Trump “can never be trusted with power again”
- Several other top Republicans have come out in support of Harris while some, including Sen. Mitt Romney and former Vice President Mike Pence, say they won’t be voting for Trump
China protests over Philippine coast guard’s Xi images
MANILA: The Chinese Embassy in Manila said Friday it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of President Xi Jinping.
Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea.
The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels.
Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a speech, with a background featuring a compilation of comical images of Xi under the banner “Why China remains to be bully?“
On Friday, the embassy slammed the post for “attacking and smearing Chinese leaders” in a statement it released.
The move “constitutes a serious violation of China’s political dignity,” the embassy said adding that it is a “blatant political provocation, which has crossed the red line.”
The embassy expressed “strong indignation” to the presidential palace, foreign affairs department and coast guard demanding an explanation for Tarriela’s “malicious provocations.”
In response, Tarriela Friday branded the protest “an attempt to deflect from the core issue: China’s repeated aggressive and illegal actions in the West Philippine Sea,” using the Filipino term for the waters immediately west of the country.
“If the Chinese Embassy objects to images or expressions that highlight these violations — often through legitimate public discourse or even satire — it only underscores discomfort with the truth being exposed,” Tarriela said, calling the response an “effort to intimidate.”
Manila’s presidential palace and Department of Foreign Affairs have yet to answer AFP’s request for comment.
Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea.
The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels.
Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a speech, with a background featuring a compilation of comical images of Xi under the banner “Why China remains to be bully?“
On Friday, the embassy slammed the post for “attacking and smearing Chinese leaders” in a statement it released.
The move “constitutes a serious violation of China’s political dignity,” the embassy said adding that it is a “blatant political provocation, which has crossed the red line.”
The embassy expressed “strong indignation” to the presidential palace, foreign affairs department and coast guard demanding an explanation for Tarriela’s “malicious provocations.”
In response, Tarriela Friday branded the protest “an attempt to deflect from the core issue: China’s repeated aggressive and illegal actions in the West Philippine Sea,” using the Filipino term for the waters immediately west of the country.
“If the Chinese Embassy objects to images or expressions that highlight these violations — often through legitimate public discourse or even satire — it only underscores discomfort with the truth being exposed,” Tarriela said, calling the response an “effort to intimidate.”
Manila’s presidential palace and Department of Foreign Affairs have yet to answer AFP’s request for comment.
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