Dem
49
GOP
51
On Friday, Liz Cheney unleashed a tirade against Donald Trump, calling him a depraved human being. She also called him and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) "misogynistic pigs." That seems unfair to pigs, though, as there is little evidence they are misogynistic. They like whoever feeds them. Liz said she will vote for Kamala Harris. She also noted that so will her father. Dick. Yup. That Dick. The one Democrats liked to compare to Darth Vader. Dick Cheney.
Just in case anyone thought Liz was making it up, on Friday, Dick himself released a statement stating that he will also vote for Harris. In it, he explained why: "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 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. 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."
Now get this. Harris' campaign chair, Jen O'Malley Dillon, was proud to receive Cheney's support. Who knew that having Darth Vader on your team was great? Well, OK, Luke Skywalker figured it out. And now, Kamala Harris has, too. The Force is strong with her.
Trump responded to Dick's endorsement of Harris by calling him a RINO. But he was much worse to Liz. He wrote: "She and her Unselects deleted and destroyed all evidence and information—It's GONE. Must of it proved that [former Speaker] Nancy Pelosi was responsible for J6 — DIDN'T PROVIDE SECURITY." None of this is true, of course. And if this is what he writes when he has plenty of time to think and edit carefully, then tomorrow's debate, where he has to think fast and there is no UNDO button, should be, er, interesting.
On Sunday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) praised Dick Cheney. Just in case you think that was a typo, here it is again: On Sunday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) praised Dick Cheney. It is not often that Sanders praises any members of the Cheney family. Yes, he did put in a few good words for Liz when she was vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee. But him praising Dick? That is, as we understand it, one of the 15 signs of the apocalypse. Still, he did it on "Meet the Press" yesterday. Talk about strange bedfellows. We can only assume that, sometime later this week, all the sea animals will gather on the surface of the waters and bellow unintelligibly.
Then there is the other Sanders, Sarah Huckabee, governor of Arkansas. Yesterday, on ABC's "This Week" she said "I'm not trying to be rude, but you don't get to call yourself a conservative or Republican when you support the most radical nominee that the Democrats have ever put up." So she thinks Harris is more radical than Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Adlai Stevenson, Hubert Humphrey, George McGovern, and Michael Dukakis? She went to college at Ouachita Baptist University. Guess they don't teach much history there.
Now that we know how Dick Cheney will vote, what about the president he served, George W. Bush? The day after Cheney's announcement, Bush made one, too. He announced that there would be no announcement. He is not going to tell anyone how he will vote. A profile in courage this is not.
Will these two Cheney votes matter? They could. They tell George W. Bush Republicans that Trump is so horrible that voting for a Democrat this one time is justified. After all, Cheney was Bush's veep. It is also possible that having both Cheneys (Chenies?) supporting Harris will help supporters of Nikki Haley to get over the hump to vote for a Democrat this one time. In a close election, even a small number of votes in seven states could matter a lot. (V)