Dick Cheney says he will vote for Harris in 2024 and issues stark warning about Trump
Another well-known name has joined the expanding list of conservatives casting a ballot for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in 2024: former Vice President Dick Cheney.
"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, a Republican who served as the No. 2 to President George W. Bush, said in a statement on Friday.
"He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again," added Cheney, a controversial figure himself during a decades-long government career that includes roles leading the Pentagon, as White House chief of staff and serving as a Republican leader in the U.S. House.
The 83-year-old former vice president has largely stayed out of the political spotlight since the end of the Bush administration in January of 2009. Once demonized by Democrats for his roles pursuing aggressive pro-energy development policies and in leading the push for the U.S. to launch a war in Iraq, Cheney has in recent years gained a new level of popularity across the aisle by taking issue with Trump.
In one hard-to-reconcile scene in early 2022, more than a dozen House Democrats lined up to shake Cheney's hand while he was visiting the House floor on the first anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Dick Cheney's statement on Friday endorsing Harris alluded to the events surrounding Jan. 6. "As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution," he said. "That is why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris."
News of Cheney's voting intentions was first shared earlier Friday by his daughter, former Rep. Liz Cheney, at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin. Liz Cheney, who served on the now-defunct House panel that investigated the Jan. 6 insurrection, had made her own endorsement of Harris Wednesday in remarks at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy.
"As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this," Liz Cheney said. "Because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris."
The former Wyoming congresswoman has been a fierce critic of the former president and 2024 GOP presidential nominee, and has said she regrets voting for Trump in 2020.
Her father's statement about the 2024 race comes on the heels of a mass endorsement of Harris by Republican alums.
Last month, 238 Republicans who previously worked for Bush, the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., or Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah pledged their support to the Democratic nominee in an open letter.
Contributing: Joey Garrison and David Jackson, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dick Cheney to vote for Kamala Harris, issues warning about Trump
