Former Vice President Dick Cheney says he’ll vote for Harris: NPR

Former Vice President Dick Cheney says he’ll vote for Harris: NPR

Former Vice President Dick Cheney speaks at the Global Business Summit in the Indian capital New Delhi on March 27, 2017.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney speaks at the Global Business Summit in the Indian capital New Delhi on March 27, 2017.

Money Sharma/AFP via Getty Images


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Money Sharma/AFP via Getty Images

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said he plans to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donald Trump, explaining that his decision was due to Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

“In our country’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who has posed a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He attempted to steal the last election through lies and violence to keep himself in power after voters rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again,” Cheney, 83, said in a widely reported statement Friday.

He added: “As citizens, we all have an obligation to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution. That’s why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.”

Cheney’s comments came days after his daughter, former Rep. Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, announced her support for the Democratic nominee.

On Saturday, Harris said she was honored by the Cheneys’ endorsement, calling them “highly respected” leaders who put loyalty to their country above their party.

“It’s time to turn the page on division. It’s time to unite our country, to find a new way forward,” Harris told reporters traveling with her in Pittsburgh, where Harris was preparing for her debate against Trump on Tuesday night.

After the Cheneys endorsed Harris, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the former vice president was an “irrelevant RINO,” an acronym for “Republican in name only,” and that his daughter was too.

Liz Cheney became an outspoken critic of Trump after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Her opposition to Trump ultimately cost her her congressional seat. On Wednesday, she said she was voting for Harris because of the grave threat Trump poses to the country.

Her father has also been critical of Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection. In 2022, Dick Cheney appeared in a TV ad for his daughter’s campaign in which he called Trump a “threat to our republic” and a “coward.”

The Cheneys aren’t the only Republicans backing Harris. Former Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger; Olivia Troye, Trump’s former White House national security official; and Stephanie Grisham, a former White House press secretary and aide to former first lady Melania Trump — all spoke at the Democratic National Convention last month and described their disappointment in Trump’s leadership.