Dick Cheney, the Republican who served alongside President George W. Bush for two terms between 2001 and 2009 and is commonly regarded as one of the most influential Vice Presidents in U.S. history, has died at age 84.
The 46th Vice President, who was a leading force behind the invasion of Iraq and the “War on Terror,” passed away on Monday night as a result of complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease, per a statement from his family.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]“For decades, Dick Cheney served our nation, including as White House Chief of Staff, Wyoming’s Congressman, Secretary of Defense, and Vice President of the United States,” read the family’s tribute, acknowledging that Cheney served father-son Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.
“Dick Cheney was a great and good man who taught his children and grandchildren to love our country, and to live lives of courage, honor, love, kindness, and fly fishing. We are grateful beyond measure for all Dick Cheney did for our country. And we are blessed beyond measure to have loved and been loved by this noble giant of a man.”
Cheney is survived by his “beloved wife of 61 years, Lynne, his daughters, Liz and Mary, and other family members [who] were with him as he passed.”
The former Vice President’s daughter, Liz Cheney, is an attorney and the former Representative of Wyoming. She, along with her late father, notably incurred the wrath of President Donald Trump when she became a vocal critic of him. Liz was ostracized by Trump-backed Republicans after she sat as one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump over allegations that he incited the assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Cheney released a statement announcing his endorsement of Democratic nominee, then-Vice President Kamala Harris for President over Trump in September 2024.
Speaking out against Trump, Cheney argued that he could “never be trusted with power again.”
Trump responded by calling the former Vice President an “irrelevant RINO”— which stands for Republican in Name Only and is a term used by some to describe Republicans who are viewed as being disloyal to the party.
Cheney, a polarizing figure, is most often mentioned in regard to his involvement in the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
In a 2006 interview with TIME, the then-Vice President was asked how he thought, or would like, history to judge the Bush-Cheney Administration.
“My guess is that the judgment will be very favorable,” Cheney replied, before discussing the Administration’s actions after the Sep. 11 attacks in 2001.
“With 9/11, we have been very aggressive in terms of both carrying the fight to the enemy, going after the terrorists, going after the state sponsors of terror, going after those who could conceivably equip the terrorists with deadlier technologies than they’ve used before,” Cheney said. “The ultimate threat here isn’t 19 guys armed with airliners; it’s 19 guys in the middle of one of our cities with a nuclear weapon. That’s the ultimate threat we have to deal with these days. And all of that was brought home by 9/11.”
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from TIME https://ift.tt/m6nMvAi
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