A family acquaintance was on Vice President Dick Cheney’s Secret Service detail during George W. Bush’s presidency. His Christmas photo one year was a portrait of him, his wife and Cheney together at a White House reception.
Back then, the agent entertained us with stories of people lining the streets as Cheney’s motorcade passed. Many greeted the vice president with their middle fingers extended.
Back then, those spectators most likely were Democrats who disagreed with Bush administration policies. Today, such roadside salutes for Cheney probably would be extended by Republicans.
Such is the way Iowa and our nation have been turned topsy-turvy in the past dozen years. Dick Cheney is on a growing list of noteworthy Republicans who have publicly said their party’s nominee for president should not be allowed back in the White House.
Members of Donald Trump’s senior staff have called him “a threat to democracy” (Defense Secretary Mark Esper), “unfit to be president” (national security adviser John Bolton), “the most dangerous person to this country” (Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley), and “the most flawed person I have ever met” (White House Chief of Staff John Kelly).
And there is Cheney’s daughter, Liz, the former congresswoman from Wyoming who co-chaired the House Select Committee that investigated the riot at the Capitol and Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Like her father, the lifelong Republican has endorsed Kamala Harris. Cheney said she disagrees with Harris on many issues. But Trump’s lies and disregard for the rule of law and the Constitution are more troubling than policy differences, Cheney said.
She laid out her criticism in her book, “Oath and Honor,” during a program that drew several thousand people to Drake University in March, and in interviews, speeches and Q&A sessions since then.
Cheney has no patience for Republicans who minimize Trump’s threat to our nation.
“So strong is the lure of power that men and women who had once seemed reasonable and responsible were suddenly willing to violate their oath to the Constitution out of political expediency and loyalty to Donald Trump,” she wrote.
She added: “Elected officials who believe their own political survival is more important than anything else threaten the survival of our republic, no matter what they tell themselves to justify their cowardice. Politicians who minimize the threat, repeat the lies, or enable the liar are not fit for office.”
There was no credible evidence voting systems deleted or lost votes or changed votes in 2020, Cheney said. Bill Barr, Trump’s attorney general, has said there is no evidence irregularities affected the election outcome in any state.
Courts reached the same conclusions. Trump and his allies filed 62 lawsuits. The courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, ruled against him 61 times. In the 62nd case, not enough votes were in question to affect Biden’s victory there.
Cheney explained, “Elections can’t be overturned based merely on accusations, or because someone says they believe there has been fraud. Sufficient evidence is required, and the fraud must have occurred on a scale that could change the result.”
Cheney said the 2000 Bush/Gore presidential election was far closer than the Trump/Biden race four years ago. In 2000, the final margin in Florida was a few hundred votes, giving George W. Bush and Dick Cheney the Electoral College victory, 271-266. In contrast, Biden’s Electoral College victory in 2020 was a comfortable 306-232.
Cheney contrasts Trump’s “stop the steal” cries with Al Gore’s concession speech after the Supreme Court ruled in Bush’s favor in Florida. “I know many of my supporters are disappointed,” Gore said. “I am, too. But our disappointment must be overcome by our love of country.”
Cheney had a speech of her own ready to deliver on January 6. But it was shelved when the mob forced its way into the Capitol to stop the official tabulation. She and others in Congress fled for their lives, as did Vice President Mike Pence.
“I wanted the election to turn out differently,” Cheney wrote in those undelivered remarks. “But I’m bound by a solemn oath, given before God, to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. I cannot comply with that oath only when it is convenient politically. Our oaths are not given to any specific president. The oath does not bend or yield to popular sentiment, mob rule, or political threats.”
Days later, she said, “The president of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. …There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States.”
Cheney knew she was torpedoing her congressional career by criticizing Trump and joining the House Select Committee investigation. But she stood up for doing the right thing.
Neither Cheney, nor the Cabinet members who criticized him, nor the witnesses who testified before the House Select Committee, were Donald Trump’s political adversaries. These were his supporters, his appointees, his advisers.
As the committee’s hearings ended, Cheney had one final message for the public: “You saw an American president faced with a stark and unmistakable choice between right and wrong. There was no ambiguity. There is no way to excuse that behavior. …Can a president who is willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of January 6th ever be trusted with any position of authority in our great nation again?”
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Randy Evans can be reached at DMRevans2810@gmail.com
