Following Vladimir Putin’s lead, former Vice President Dick Cheney joined his daughter in supporting the installed Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris.
“He can never be trusted with power again,” he said in a statement. “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.”
Harris responded by saying she’s honored to have the endorsements from the Cheneys, calling them “well respected” leaders who had put country before party. “It’s time to turn the page on the divisiveness. It’s time to bring our country together, chart a new way forward,” she said to reporters.
The Cheney family join an ever-growing list of political families crossing political divisions in the 2024 election campaign.
Both George W. and Jeb Bush have refused to endorse Donald Trump (which, ironically itself is an endorsement of Trump), while Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Malik Obama and much of Tim Walz’s family have broken away from their Democratic roots to support the former president.
Dick Cheney’s support for Harris is particularly interesting given how he was Joe Biden’s predecessor over 15 years ago. As Barack Obama’s running mate, Biden pitched his vision to the American people against then-Alaska Sen. Sarah Palin.
It’s safe to say Biden did not wholly approve of the man who is now endorsing his potential successor.
Back in the 2008 vice presidential debate, Biden blasted Cheney as “[having] been the most dangerous vice president we’ve had in American history.”
At the time, critics of the Bush administration accused Cheney of expanding his vice presidential powers to insert influence over foreign policy, most notably the Iraq War. Biden pledged not to follow suit, instead presenting himself in a more advisory role.
If you didn’t believe in the “uniparty” before – here it is right before your eyes.
Some on social media agreed with Biden’s comments about the dangerousness of Cheney, who once shot a Texas attorney on a hunting trip.
Others noted how Biden had aged over the past 16 years.
