Dick Cheney announces he will vote for Kamala Harris saying Donald Trump can ‘never be trusted with power again’
Former vice president and longtime Republican Dick Cheney has said he will vote for Kamala Harris in this year’s US election.
The 83-year-old issued a statement announcing he will be backing the Democratic candidate because her Republican rival Donald Trump can “never be trusted with power again”.
Mr Cheney has been an outspoken critic of Mr Trump, most notably during his daughter Liz Cheney’s unsuccessful campaign to hold on to her Wyoming seat in Congress in 2022.
Ms Cheney, who said she would be voting for Ms Harris on Wednesday, was the first to announce her father’s endorsement when she spoke to Mark Leibovich from The Atlantic magazine in an onstage interview at The Texas Tribune Festival in Austin on Friday.
“Wow,” Mr Leibovich replied as the audience cheered.
In a statement issued later, Mr Cheney said that “in our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump”.
“He can never be trusted with power again,” he adds.
“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.”
Asked for comment after Ms Cheney announced her father’s voting intention, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said: “Who is Liz Cheney?”
The campaign confirmed Mr Cheung was being sarcastic by also pointing to a comment Ms Cheney posted online four years ago in which she called Ms Harris a “radical liberal”.
Mr Cheney, who served as vice president under Republican President George W Bush from 2001 to 2009, 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.
Liz and Dick Cheney in Wyoming in 2022. Pic: AP
His statement on Friday was similar to a 2022 campaign ad for his daughter as she sought a fourth term as Wyoming’s lone congressperson.
In reference to the 6 January Capitol riots in 2021, he called Mr 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 Mr Trump’s corner.
Mr Cheney has been friends with Democrats over the years, but never supported one for president.
Both Cheneys backed Mr Trump during his successful 2016 presidential bid.
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However, their support for him waned with Ms Cheney criticising Mr Trump’s foreign policy decisions while he was in office.
She later criticised him over the 6 January Capitol riots.
Meanwhile, while in office, Mr Trump had criticised the “endless wars” in Afghanistan and Iraq launched when Mr Cheney was vice president.
If either Cheney supported Mr Trump in 2020, they were quiet about it.
Several other top Republicans have also come out in support of Ms Harris ahead of this year’s election while some, including Senator Mitt Romney and former vice president Mike Pence, say they will not be voting for Mr Trump.
Of them, only Mr Romney, who is not seeking re-election, is still in office.
Thousands of people gathered in various cities across the US as protests against Donald Trump and Elon Musk took place in all 50 states on Saturday.
Around 1,200 demonstrations were planned in locations including Washington DC, New York City and West Palm Beach, Florida – just miles away from where the US president has this weekend played golf.
The “Hands Off!” protests were against the Trump administration’s handling of government downsizing, human rights and the economy, among other issues.
In Washington DC, protesters streamed on the grass in front of the Washington Monument, where one person carried a banner which read: “Make democracy great again.”
Thousands gathered in Washington DC to rally against various Trump policies. Pic: AP
Pic: AP
Another protester took aim at Mr Trump‘s handling of Russia and Ukraine, with a placard that read: “Stop Putin’s puppets from destroying America.”
Tesla boss Mr Musk also featured on many signs due to his role in controversial government cuts as head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Demonstrators in NYC. Pic: AP
People marching in Atlanta, Georgia. Pic: Reuters
A rally in Vermont. Pic: The Brattleboro Reformer via AP
Terry Klein, a retired biomedical scientist, said she drove to the rally to protest Mr Trump’s policies on “everything from immigration to the DOGE stuff to the tariffs this week, to education”.
“I mean, our whole country is under attack, all of our institutions, all the things that make America what it is,” she added.
A drone view of the protest at the Utah State Capitol building. Pic Reuters
A protester sports a Handmaid’s Tale costume. Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
Some at the various protests carried Ukrainian flags, while others sported rainbow attire and waved rainbow flags in support of the LGBTQ+ community.
Other protesters wore Palestinian keffiyeh scarves and carried “Free Palestine” signs.
Thousands marched in New York City’s midtown Manhattan and in Boston, Massachusetts, while hundreds gathered in the sunshine outside the Utah State Capitol building in Salt Lake City, and in the rain outside the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio.
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Mr Trump – who shook financial markets with his tariffs announcement this week – spent the day in Florida, playing a round of golf before returning to his Mar-a-Lago residence.
People protest in Manhattan. Pic: Reuters
Activists in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Pic: AP
Some four miles from Mar-a-Lago, more than 400 people gathered – and drivers honked their horns in support of protesters who held up signs including one which read: “Markets tank, Trump golfs.”
The White House has said Mr Trump plans to go golfing again on Sunday.
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