Former Vice President Dick Cheney Supports Donald Trump, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham Refuses


Former Vice President Dick Cheney, who served under former President George W. Bush, will lend his full support to Donald Trump. Although this is not surprising, it probably encourages “the Donald” as many members of the Republican party aren’t backing him — at least not yet.

The revelation of the Cheney support comes one day after Republican Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, disclosed that he is “just not ready” to throw his hat into the ring with Trump.

Cheney also served as the elder former President Bush’s defense secretary. Both of the former presidents have declared that they won’t be supporting Trump, nor will either of them be attending the GOP convention in Cleveland later this year. Perhaps the younger one regrets listening to Dick Cheney and following through on his advice and counsel.

Previously, Cheney criticized Trump for sounding like a “liberal Democrat” and criticizing the second Bush administration for invading Iraq and failing to stop 9/11. In a February interview, Cheney explained that he has always supported the Republican nominee and would continue in the same vein, per Politico. At that time, he didn’t think Trump had a chance, but the times have changed.

“If he operates the way he’s operating, sounding like a liberal Democrat, I don’t think he’ll get the nomination.”

The former presidents Bush are not alone in their sentiments on Trump, but neither has said they won’t vote for him. Just Friday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, said he can’t bring himself to vote for Trump or Clinton. He was surprised when he learned that Cheney will support the former Celebrity Apprentice host and real estate mogul, according to Fox 8 News.

“Dick Cheney’s a great man. We see the world a lot alike when it comes to foreign policy. I can understand when people want to support the nominee of the Republican Party. I would like to be able to do that, but I just can’t. Maybe I’m the outlier here. Probably am. There’ll be Democrats who can’t support Hillary Clinton, and you know some of them will hold their nose and vote for her. Some of them will do it enthusiastically.”

Not everyone shares Graham’s opinion that Dick Cheney is a great man. For some, his involvement in the Iraq war and torture negates any claims of greatness. Remember the words of Richard Clarke, the former high-ranking counterterrorism official who served under both Bill Clinton and the younger Bush. Clarke resigned after the Bush administration’s erroneous decision to invade Iraq, per the Huffington Post.

“I think things that they [George W. Bush and Dick Cheney] authorized probably fall within the area of war crimes. Whether that would be productive or not, I think, is a discussion we could all have. But we have established procedures now with the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where people who take actions as serving presidents or prime ministers of countries have been indicted and have been tried… It’s clear that things that the Bush administration did — in my mind, at least, it’s clear that some of the things they did were war crimes.”

It’s possible that the Dick Cheney endorsement might not be viewed as positive by the current Republican presidential hopeful. He might view Cheney’s support as a liability rather than an asset, triggering the memory of Americans who are old enough to recall of a darker time in our nation when non-existent weapons of mass destruction and enhanced interrogation techniques were the norms and the rallying cry was revenge against a scapegoat enemy.

[Photo by Pool/Getty]

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