Former Representative Liz Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, have both endorsed Kamala Harris. If you told me back in 2000 that the Cheney family would be all-in on a Black and Indian-American Democratic presidential candidate, I would have called you crazy. People can really surprise you. Liz Cheney absolutely disagrees with President Biden and VP Kamala Harris on some big policy issues. Some would say that Liz Cheney disagrees with VP Harris 95% of the time… but I don’t think it’s that much. It’s more like 80/20. But Liz Cheney was also part of the January 6th Committee, and she fully understands the unique danger Donald Trump presents to America. She understands, as does her father, that the first task is simply saving the country from a megalomaniac fascist. The Cheneys didn’t bargain with VP Harris or the campaign, they didn’t withhold their endorsements until Kamala did this or that. They just endorsed for the good of the country. On Thursday, Liz Cheney appeared at a Harris campaign event in Wisconsin. Her speech was wonderful, and she was visibly moved by the chants of “thank you Liz.”
What I love about Cheney’s speech is that she’s not compromising on her beliefs whatsoever. There’s no snide comment about “holding her nose to vote for the lesser of two evils,” there’s no Republican conspiracies, there’s no sniping about this or that. She calls Kamala Harris a patriot and speaks of what Harris’s leadership will bring for the country. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Liz Cheney is a profile in political courage. Now, do I also think that if Kamala Harris wins, Liz Cheney is likely to get a cabinet position? Probably. But I doubt that has been explicitly bargained or requested.
It is an honor to have the endorsement of @Liz_Cheney.
The vast majority of us agree: We must hold sacred America's fundamental principles. If you share that view—no matter your political party—there is a place for you in this campaign.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 3, 2024
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, YouTube thumbnails.
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- Day ten of the United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on December 19, 2022. The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol voted, for the first time in American history, to refer criminal charges against a former United States president to the Department of Justice. This concludes an 18-month long investigation of the insurrection that rocked the country’s democratic election system. Featuring: Liz Cheney Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 19 Dec 2022 Credit: Rod Lamkey/CNP/startraksphoto.co/Cover Images
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- United States Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic Party nominee for President of the US, makes remarks addressing gun violence in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, September 26, 2024. Credit: Chris Kleponis / CNP Featuring: Kamala Harris Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 26 Sep 2024 Credit: CNP/INSTARimages
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- United States Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic Party nominee for President of the US, makes remarks addressing gun violence in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, September 26, 2024. Credit: Chris Kleponis / CNP Featuring: Kamala Harris Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 26 Sep 2024 Credit: CNP/INSTARimages
Women could save the world, given half a chance.
I realized last week while looking at the sample ballot for my precinct (I’m in a purple suburb of Indianapolis) that I will have an opportunity to vote for ALL women – no men – in November, and I likely will do so.
I agree but men are doing all they can to prevent women from saving the world because then they feel that would make them look bad and we can’t have that. I will be voting for many women on my ballot.
So what cabinet position is she going to get? This is not great but this is what the campaign believes it has to do to win.
There might be some cynical self-preservation. Trump will go after all his critics if elected. If she helps to bring him down, she is uniquely positioned to lead the party. It’s a gamble that could pay off.
Speaking as someone who grew up in a conservative family in a conservative community, there are very few truly principled people on that side. They all agree that it’s acceptable to push someone down. I don’t believe Liz is just doing this out of patriotism.
Agreed. There’s more to her political calculus.
I actually think the political calculous is more on the party side rather than just Cheney herself and it’s a false narrative that the Cheneys “went rogue” like McCain. There are many MANY people in the GOP who hate what Trump has done to the party but they’re all spineless twerps who want to keep their jobs and their power so they’ll never say as much. The GOP wanted this signal to go out but they couldn’t risk any of their Congress members being unseated because Trump put a target on their backs. Dick and Liz are a perfect fit in that sense.
This endorsement was absolutely coordinated by the GOP: they want to give permission to Republican voters who despise Trump to feel like there’s still a place for them in the party.
Commerce? Transportation? Any number of options for her. Kamala has said she would like to have a Republican as a member of her cabinet. The question is will the looney Republicans confirm Liz or try to punish her?
LOL she answered that annoying question correctly but that does NOT mean that she plans on hiring a Republican to work in her cabinet.
Exactly!
She’ll get a cabinet position out of this which I’m fine with.
She’s a Republican and a woman; she has likely experienced much male toxicity. To see her say DT is over the top should say a lot to any woman considering voting for him.
She probably experienced male toxicity with her own father and the crowd that he hung around with.
One thing that I can say about Liz; she sure has some great hair game.
It’s not just you, I never saw Liz or Dick Cheney ever taking the moral high ground, being courageous and bucking their party or anything like that. I was talking to a friend and we would find it difficult to vote for policies that the Cheneys voted for if the roles were reversed: if the fascist were a Democrat. I reluctantly and yet completely gratefully admire how she’s rallied behind Kamala Harris, and I would have no issue if she were given a role in government. Our government is polarized and dysfunctional and greater polarization in whichever country is leading to some really scary fringe groups getting in power and destroying all sorts of freedoms.
I have the deepest respect for high profile Republicans who have come out against Donald Trump, especially the committee who investigated the J6 insurrection. Liz Cheney was willing to lose her political career in order to make Donald Trump accountable.
I do too. If you had told me 20 years ago that the Cheneys were going to be leading the Republicans for Harris parade, while Lindsey Graham and Rudy Giuliani were suckling at the teat of Donald Trump, I never would have believed you.
Agree.
And I’m not drawing direct comparisons to Lincoln or anything… BUT, there is a element of ‘needs must’ practicality to democracy; and it wouldn’t be a new thing either.
From Doris Kearns Goodwin in Lincoln and his Team of Rivals:
“His explanation at the time was that these were the strongest men in the country. He declared that at a time of peril, the country needed to have the strongest men, and that he couldn’t deprive it of those talents.
At the same time, Lincoln was facing a Republican Party that was very young and whose members had come from a variety of other parties. They were former Whigs, former Democrats. *By putting his rivals in his cabinet, he had access to a wide range of opinions, which he realized would sharpen his own thinking. It also gave him a way of keeping all those conflicting opinions together.* If he didn’t have a unified group fighting against the South, the fight would be impossible to sustain. So having all those opinions in his cabinet not only helped him; it helped the country as well.”
https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2006/spring/interview.html#:~:text=Team%20of%20Rivals%20is%20about,Lincoln%20and%20wrote%20about%20him.
Same. I will probably never vote for a Republican, and will continue to oppose many of the things the party stands for, but I do appreciate every single one of them who didn’t just fall into line and blindly support trump.
I’m sure there’s some self serving motives in there, to wrestle the party back from the lunatics, and book deals and all that, but…I’m still glad for everyone who has stood up against him, and gone so far as endorsing Kamala Harris.
I’m hoping all of them who have endorsed Kamala have opened the door to other old school GOP voters to realize that it’s the right move, not only to just NOT vote for trump, but to actually vote FOR Kamala. We need a landslide, and anyone willing to contribute to that, thank you.
Her bravery…it’s pretty amazing. Her political career disintegrated when she came out against Trump, and I’m sure she’s had to increase her security. Where is Mitt Romney? Where is Bush? Cowards, both of them.
Why do you want all these terrible Republicans to endorse Kamala?
So we win and rid ourselves of the 💩 stain for good. It’s not that complicated.
@Brassy Rebel: MAGA is entrenched in the Republican party and Supreme Court is dominated by Trump appointees. Getting rid of Trump is not going to stop the Heritage Foundation and others from pushing their agenda. The Cheneys are not leaving the Republican party.
Not here to speak for Liz Cheney for sure. But I think she would say that the Republican party has left her and many others behind. It no longer functions as a political party; it is just a cult in service to one horrible man. There are no fundamental principles which it represents. It doesn’t even present real policies anymore. Instead, it promotes anger, fear, hate, and retribution as what it stands for. Liz Cheney has said that it will take a whole new political party to replace the zombie party that her former party has become.
Even before Trump the Republican had bad ideas. It will continue to do so after Trump is gone. Liz Cheney is anti-abortion and whatever new party she think is going emerge from the zombie is going to maintain the same anti-abortion, anti-LBGTQ anti-immigrant and racist agenda.
I don’t doubt it. But once Trump is gone, we can deal with that. It’s not like anyone expects we will only have one party, the Democrats, forever. The ideal is what Kamala described in her speech yesterday, two parties offering ideas which we then debate vigorously. And elections which both sides accept as legitimate with the loser acknowledging their loss leading to a peaceful transition of power. It’s one big thing which Democrats and Never Trump Republicans agree on. For now, it’s enough.
@Brassy Rebel – you are spot on. If you read Cheney’s book you’ll understand how devious and malignant her fellow Republicans who sided with Trump were to her. They pretty much tried to end her career, ruin her reputation and threaten her into submission but it didn’t work. Yes there are policy differences between Cheney and Harris but she’s choosing to put those differences aside in an effort to save American democracy and rid the country of a malignant, self-obsessed despot.
These Republicans are showing Republican voters a path to casting a vote for Harris in November.
They are modeling, as the signs yesterday proclaimed:
***. Country Over Party ***
If 1000 traditional Republican voters decide to cast a vote for Harris as a result of seeing Cheney’s example, those are 1000 votes that will increase Harris’ chance of beating Trump
I’m all for it.
This is a “preserve the Republic so we in the future still have a chance to debate policies vs having an Orange Crush and his demented minions tear the whole thing down” moment.
George W. Bush worked hard behind the scenes to put his nasty little rapist buddy, Bret Cavanaugh, on the Supreme Court. Now when our constitution is at stake, it’s crickets from W. People can change and grow. Hopefully, that’s what’s happening here. Liz Cheney called out Trump’s “depraved cruelty” in her speech. Maybe more Republicans will see that and decide they’ve had enough too. And the best moment was when she smiled and said, “We’re not going back “
brassy rebel,
W is also being a weasel behind the scenes right now raising money to oust my senator in PA Bob Casey for some billionaire that doesnt even live here. He is beneath contempt.
they had a debate last night and W’s guy told PA women to get over losing abortion rights
Yup. Bush is trash heap loser, and he always was.
We see the profoundness. We are the only ones.
I don’t like Liz Chaney. She has said some foul things in the past and her getting all this praise for not wanting a fascist to be in control is that much of a flex. I think that if she has the reach to bring reasonable thinking republicans in to vote Kamala then excellent.
Yep. She’s doing right here, but I wouldn’t trust her to do anything right in the future. She would probably like to be the new face of the Republican party, and that’s fair.
The demand for perfect allies and endorsements is as pointless and petulant as the demand for a perfect candidate. We’re fighting for our lives here. We played nice with Stalin to get rid of Hitler. This isn’t all that different– hell, the ultimate enemy, fascism, is exactly the same. We can go right back to despising those Republicans who still deserve it (a few of them seem to be genuinely shaken by what Trump and his cult have become and their support may come from a more sincere place) after we win.
History is perennial. I’m clapping for this comment.
Yup. And this strive for perfection is why the furthest left on the political spectrum often fail to build coalitions and make meaningful inroads.
Really well said,thank you.
Very well said.
The location in Ripon was significant. The little white schoolhouse there is the birthplace of the Republican Party. I hope, like crowd sizes, this is just another poke at Trump’s fragile ego. He is getting so deranged, he sounds (and looks) like he has rabies.
Trump made it clear that he is gonna be a dictator from day 1. In his first term, Republicans were thinking they can manage him. Now, they can’t lie themselves. He is gonna go after anyone who disobeys him just how he didn’t care what happens to Mike Pence, who actually tried to do everything Trump asked for. As Lindsey once said: ” If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed and we will deserve it.”
First I have to say: F*ck Dick Cheney, forever. That said, a broken clock is right twice a day and I’m glad he’s speaking out.
And Liz is being incredibly brave to walk the path she is. Many Republicans feel like she feels but are afraid to speak out- she is not only speaking out but taking active steps to stop Trump. I disagree with her on just about every single thing but she deserves our admiration.
More republicans don’t speak out because they are afraid of their own constituents. Their constituents come after them with death threats against them and their children for any deviation.
I have a feeling that when this dark era passes, many republicans will claim that they were afraid to speak out, but always hated Trump. Liz Cheney has wealth and powerful facions behind her. She can afford to take the risk of speaking out. I’m hoping that Mitt Romney and other high placed Republicans speak out. It is a strategic move–by speaking out, they have a chance to lead what remains of the republican party and reshape it for the 21century–rejecting Trumpism, which is the ultimate expression of the Nixon Southern Strategy
*I’m not sympathizing with the Republicans staying silent–I think they are weasels and cowards, who are derelict in their duty as public servants
They’re not afraid of their constituents–they’re afraid of Trump because ultimately the buck stops with him. The voters will align with anything Trump say–he has complete control over both the party and their voting base.
It’s dangerous and destructive to behave as if Trump is a unique threat to our democracy (and that, once removed, we’ll be hunky dory, once again), rather than the culmination of Republican-friendly policies, enacted over the last several decades, in this country. Harris would have served the people of this country much better, if she’d courted reluctant voters, rather than the never-Trump stump of the GOP.
Just to remind everyone: Cheney remains a committed “conservative”—queerphobe, patriarchist, oligarchist. She is like maneuvering herself for a run for higher office, as much as anything else.
I’m getting multiple emails every day about how my small donation will help with outreach efforts to voters — “reluctant “, apathetic, overwhelmed, exhausted, uncertain… whatever. So I don’t think that this cohort of voters is being ignored.
I also don’t think that most view Liz Cheney and her Darth Vader Dad as being anything other than who they are — which is multiple levels of destructiveness better than Trump. Thanks to the Electoral College, this election will —at best — be decided by a very small number of votes in a very small number of states. I applaud Cheney for using what sway she has to tip the balance away from Trump.
“It’s dangerous and destructive to behave as if Trump is a unique threat to our democracy (and that, once removed, we’ll be hunky dory, once again), rather than the culmination of Republican-friendly policies, enacted over the last several decades, in this country.”
hard HARD agree.
But I think Blithe is also correct that the campaign has done their best to appeal to undecideds. Part of the problem is introducing herself to this voting bloc and winning them over in an impossibly narrow timetable. They’re trying though–the effort and outreach is there.
There is so much more Harris’s campaign could have done to appeal to the kind of people who feel left out of the electoral process. Notice I didn’t say, “undecideds”. The people who look at Harris and Trump and can’t decide between them are hopeless. I’m referring to people who don’t think electoral politics has anything to offer them and, so, don’t participate (vote). But that would mean departing from the neoliberal party line—and we can’t have that!
I’ll add, too, that a critical piece for Democrats will be actually getting willing voters to vote, and having plans in place to reveal and topple Republican shenanigans— so that all of our votes are accurately counted. Much of these efforts will be less about campaigning —and more about down-to-the-wire practical assistance and support as polling centers and deadlines for mail-in voting continue to open up.
My fear is that the Republicans are setting things up to toss the decision to the Supreme Court — which they’ve already preemptively bought and paid for.
As someone whose vote has often been taken for granted, I well understand what powerlessness and apathy feel like and look like. I also understand what genuine constraints and impediments to voting look like — and have experienced firsthand how these impediments are being exploited. Fortunately, I also have had the examples of many fervent models and ancestors assuring me that to “keep a pluggin’ away” is indeed a viable political strategy — even as we collectively work for better opportunities and options.
@Blithe, absolutely. We must not become complacent.
While I agree, I don’t think anyone paying attention thinks trump is a unique threat, especially once Vance and his extremist ideology came on the scene. We know there’s a lot of awful people out there. Even if (God please) Harris wins, if the GOP holds onto the Senate or House, it’s going to be an uphill battle, but if she wins, we’ll all breathe a sigh of relief, take a moment to celebrate, and then get back to work.
I actually do think things like this help sway some reluctant voters, and there are so many groups out there trying to get people registered and interested in voting for Harris.
The powers-that-be, from the January 6th Committee, onward , have treated our current fascist crisis as an isolated case of “Trump”. This is why they never went after any of Trump’s GOP co-conspirators in the House and Senate. Those traitors are still free to do their best to undermine our fragile and imperfect democracy.
Harris is trying to create a permission structure, for those Republicans who can be persuaded, to vote for her, instead of Trump. The problem with that is: when the dust settles, if she has won, she will be beholden to them.
I watched her speech which, as implied in this article, was a full-throated endorsement of Kamala and Tim, and while I don’t agree with Cheney on most policy issues, I do admire her courage and her patriotism. She’s been unwavering in her support of democracy and our Constitution, and she has most certainly paid a high cost for her bravery.
I watched it too and actually got a little verklempt at times. The US is teetering politically on a razor’s edge right now and it’s a brave, positive move for Cheney to join forces with Harris and focus on what’s important here — a safe future for all Americans and getting rid of the Trump malignancy that is out to destroy it.
Dick Cheney grifted harder than anyone (even Javanka) while he was in office — his firm Halliburton benefited hugely from the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. One good result from that criminality is that his daughter, Liz, did not have any fear whatsoever in co-chairing the Jan 6 congressional investigation. She knew if she lost her Congressional seat, she would still be a wealthy woman with all her needs taken care of for the rest of her life. I’m glad she temperamentally, dispositionally, was willing to go so hard for the truth and for democracy, and I’m glad to see her out there now campaigning for and with Harris. I guess some nepo babies are good for our country, because they have no fear!!
🎯 about the graft. But, I seriously doubt she would have done any of this, if daddy didn’t viscerally loathe Trump.
This is exactly the endorsements I think the Harris campaign would pursue and highlight if they were trying to lose to Trump in November. It persuades 0 undecided voters and only makes you look like you are a swamp creature like the Cheneys.
Jen O’Malley Dixon is going for the triple crown of campaign managing. First she torpedoed Beto’s 2020 campaign, then Bidens 2024 campaign, and now she has her sights set on destroying the Harris campaign. A republican operative couldn’t do a worse job than she has.
I find her stances on “abortion after birth” utterly repulsive, but damn. I respect the hell out of her for supporting Kamala and applaud her authentic patriotism.
Trump has threatened her so many times, at least she’s not a coward like the other republicans who just let him insult and threatened them.
I just came here to say what an upside down world I live in now that I’m on the same side as Dick Cheney!
“Politics makes strange bedfellows”
as the saying goes