Former Vice President and lifelong Republican Dick Cheney said in a statement on Friday that he will vote for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in November’s presidential election.
“In the 248-year history of our country, there has never been a greater threat to our country than Donald Trump,” Cheney said of the former president and Republican nominee. “He tried to steal the last election, using lies and violence to maintain his hold on power after it was rejected by the voters. We cannot entrust him with power again.”
“As Americans, we each have an obligation to put country above partisanship and uphold the Constitution. That’s why I’m voting for Vice President Kamala Harris.”
Liz Cheney, who endorsed Harris on Thursday, first announced her father’s support when asked by The Atlantic’s Marc Leibovich during an onstage interview at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin.
“Dick Cheney will be voting for Kamala Harris,” Liz Cheney said to cheers from the audience.
“Amazing,” Leibovich responded.
Asked for comment, Trump spokesman Stephen Chang responded, “Who is Liz Cheney?”
Like his daughter, Dick Cheney has been an outspoken critic of President Trump, especially during Liz Cheney’s unsuccessful 2022 reelection campaign.
In a campaign ad for Liz Cheney, who is seeking a fourth term as Wyoming’s only congresswoman, Dick Cheney called the former president a “coward.”
The ad did little for the daughter in a state that was once dear to the Cheney family but now leans Republican and is entirely supportive of Trump, where Liz Cheney lost the Republican primary by a 2-to-1 margin to Trump-backed lawyer Harriet Hageman.
Notably absent from Friday’s endorsement was the 83-year-old former vice president, who has barely been seen in public for more than a year.
In a social media post on Friday, Trump called the Cheneys “irrelevant RINOs,” a term he uses for Republicans who are not loyal to him, short for “Republicans in Name Only.”
The Associated Press contributed reporting