WASHINGTON (AP) — Dick Cheney is a career Republican who is still demonized by Democrats for his uncompromising defense of the Iraq war as vice president, but his partisan loyalties were thrown overboard in an extraordinary way last week when he endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris for the White House.
Alberto Gonzales’ tenure in the George W. Bush administration was marked by debates over intrusive government wiretapping and an abrupt purge of U.S. prosecutors that Democrats viewed with great suspicion. Nevertheless, the former Attorney General prefers Harris to Republican Donald Trump.
These endorsements reflect the remarkable evolution of the establishment wing of the Republican Party, which ruled Washington during the Bush era but was marginalized when Trump took control of the party. These figures, once despised by Democrats, are so alarmed by the prospect of the former president returning to power that they are willing to oppose their own party’s nominee for the White House.
This gives Harris a crucial opportunity to expand her support base.
“It’s easier for prominent Republicans like Cheney and Gonzales to say, ‘I support Kamala Harris,’ because their old home has been virtually looted and destroyed,” said Will Marshall, founder of the Progressive Policy Institute, a center-left think tank. “The partisan ties that are always strong in both parties are weakened by the fact that Trump has made today’s Republican Party absolutely unwelcoming to prominent Republicans who served in previous administrations.”
Bush himself will not follow suit. A spokesman said the former president has no plans to make recommendations or say publicly how he will vote.
Harris has accepted endorsements from Republicans with whom she has little in common and whose support likely has more to do with opposition to Trump than support for her policy positions. She frequently mentions that more than 200 Republicans have endorsed her, and her campaign said in an email highlighting Gonzales’ endorsement that they welcome “any American – regardless of party – who values ​​democracy and the rule of law.”
Former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan, a Republican who supported Harris and spoke at the Democratic convention last month, said the impact of the “registered, proven Republicans” backing Harris could persuade other Republicans who dislike Trump to vote against him rather than sit out the election.
“I don’t know if we can convince someone to vote for Trump or Harris,” Duncan said. “I think we can convince someone who is just sitting at home and not voting for anyone to vote for Kamala Harris.”
It is unclear whether the Republicans will win
But the true influence of Republicans, who have long been criticized by Democrats, is unclear – especially given Cheney’s ongoing hurt feelings and decades of polarizing personality in Washington.
While Harris’ campaign team basks in the support, comedian Jon Stewart mocked Cheney’s support on the “Daily Show.” He directed a curse at the former vice president and shouted: “You were so close to destroying the whole world. We were so close.”
“Who in God’s name is this support supposed to affect?” Stewart asked. “Well, I like the Democrats’ policies on child tax credits, but are they bombing enough countries in the Middle East?”
For a long time, it would have been unimaginable that Cheney would vote for the Democrats. He served three Republican presidents in various positions, from White House Chief of Staff to Secretary of Defense and Vice President.
Cheney was sharply criticized by Democrats for many reasons, including his staunch support of Halliburton, the defense contractor he once co-chaired, and his involvement in a scandal involving the publication of the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Plame was an ambassador and her husband doubted the US intelligence information used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
After Cheney accidentally shot and killed a friend on a hunting trip in 2006, even Peggy Noonan, a former speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan and a veteran of Bush’s re-election campaign, suggested he might have to resign.
“At a certain point, a hate magnet can attract so much hate that you no longer want to hold it in your hand and just drop it,” she wrote in the Wall Street Journal at the time.
And yet Cheney lasted through both of Bush’s terms in office.
That Cheney “is now considered a mainstream Republican is a sad commentary on this party and all the more reason to keep Trump and the Republicans out of power in 2024,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
Cheney derided critics of the Iraq war as “opportunists” in a 2005 speech and said the claim that the Bush administration had deliberately misled the public about the existence of weapons of mass destruction was “one of the most dishonest and reprehensible accusations ever uttered in Washington.” He later said the Democrats’ stance on the war would “vindicate the stance of al-Qaeda,” earning a rebuke from then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California.
The ideological division of the Republican Party
The ideological divide within the Republican Party has long been evident. Trump focused his 2016 campaign on turning away from the Republicans’ vintage party base. Among other things, he falsely insisted that he had always been against the war.
Cheney was a prominent critic of Trump’s foreign policy and rebuked the then president at a closed-door meeting in 2019 for his public complaints about NATO’s role and the surprise announcement of a troop withdrawal from Syria.
The rift was again evident after the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021. Cheney visited the building on the one-year anniversary of the attack and sat with his daughter, then-Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), in the front row of the Republican side of the House, as the only two party members at a pro forma session.
Liz Cheney, who co-led the House investigation into the siege before losing her seat in the 2022 Republican primary, announced her support for Harris last week, following her father’s statement that Trump could “never be trusted with power again.”
Crystal McLaughlin, a 53-year-old health care compliance worker from Greensboro, North Carolina, said she was “very, very nervous” when Cheney was vice president, but she appreciates the Cheneys’ support and hopes other Republicans will follow their example.
“I don’t trust him, but you know, thank you for your support,” McLaughlin said, adding, “And hopefully your financial support as well.”
Gonzales, the former attorney general, said he had spoken to Trump only once. But in an opinion piece for Politico on Thursday, Gonzales emerged as Trump’s latest prominent Republican critic. Gonzales pointed to the Capitol attack, Trump’s criminal case and other factors to brand him unfit for office and a contemptuous of the rule of law.
“As the United States approaches a crucial election, I cannot stand idly by as Donald Trump – possibly the greatest threat to the rule of law in a generation – considers a return to the White House,” he wrote.
This is notable considering that Gonzales faced acute criticism from Democrats and some Republican lawmakers before he resigned amid a scandal surrounding the abrupt firing of a group of U.S. prosecutors.
Some of the fired prosecutors said they felt pressured to investigate Democrats before the election. Gonzales insisted the firings were based on what he saw as destitute prosecutors’ performance.
As White House counsel, Gonzales pushed for the reauthorization of a secret domestic spying program in 2004, despite protests from the Justice Department. Although Republican leaders called for extensive government surveillance after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, that support has waned significantly within the party as lawmakers capitalize on Trump’s skepticism of the FBI.
“Every Republican will eventually have to swallow their guilt and admit that Donald Trump was the wrong man for our party,” said Duncan, the former lieutenant governor of Georgia. “It’s only a matter of time when they do it.”
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Associated Press writer Makiya Seminera in Greensboro, North Carolina, contributed to this report.
