Kamala Harris has sparked fury after praising former vice president Dick Cheney while campaigning with his daughter in Wisconsin.
Dick Cheney, the longtime Wyoming congressman and conservative vice president to George W. Bush is often blamed for America’s invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
‘I also want to thank your father, vice president Dick Cheney, for his support, and what he has done to serve our country,’ Harris said on Thursday while thanking his daughter, Liz, for supporting her.
‘Dick Cheney not only committed war crimes and helped kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, but he also caused the deaths of thousands of American soldiers,’ wrote journalist Mehdi Hasan.
‘They should send Liz Cheney to Michigan to campaign for Kamala in Dearborn and Detroit. She can explain why she and her dad still support Guantanamo, CIA black sites, torture, rendition, drones and the war in Iraq,’ wrote journalist Glenn Greenwald.
‘Yeah imagine how much worse off we would be without the service of Dick Cheney,’ wrote right-leaning podcaster Saagar Enjeti sarcastically.
President Joe Biden also praised Dick Cheney on Friday after he watched Cheney and Harris campaign together.
‘I know her dad. … We argue like hell but I always admired his courage and honesty,’ Biden said, and added, ‘She and her father have character. Character dammit is what we need in this country!’
As a senator, Biden voted to give then-President George W. Bush the authority to go to war in Iraq, even though he changed his mind and opposed the war afterward.
But many left-leaning Americans felt differently about Cheney than Biden.
‘We’d better win if we have to put up with this s***,’ wrote TV writer Ben Siemon.
‘If you were to pick a single most evil man in the 21st century it would be hard to beat Dick Cheney. People can do what they want but I’ll never vote for this,’ wrote podcaster Sean Padraig McCarthy.
‘[A] world in which George W Bush had never listened to Dick Cheney would have been world without Iraq invasion and would probably have been a world without extreme NATO expansion, including reckless promise to Ukraine in closing days of Bush admin, and would probably have been in world in which followup Obama admin didn’t continue US regime change policies in Middle East with destruction of Libya, Syria and Yemen,’ wrote climate activist Stephen McIntyre.
Others marveled at the sheer madness of the event, suggesting the ‘Matrix’ was broken or the ‘simulation’ of reality was ‘out of control.
When you're so damn desperate to win, you thank Dick Cheney for "what he has done to serve our country".
The simulation is out of control. 🤣 https://t.co/o2zVZOSpv3 pic.twitter.com/jD8LXRoFqy
— Ali | thechaingamer.eth (@TheChainGamer) October 4, 2024
‘I honestly did not have on my bingo card that the Democrats would go from calling Dick Cheney a war criminal to thanking him for his service to the country,’ wrote user Amez808. ‘Incredible timeline.’
‘The writers are just f***ing with us at this point,’ wrote Cathy Young.
Federalist writer Sean Davis shared a quote from Joe Biden from the 2012 vice presidential debate describing Cheney as ‘the most dangerous vice president probably in American history.’
‘So, no: Joe Biden has not ‘always admired’ Dick Cheney,’ he posited.
Former President Donald Trump mocked Liz Cheney as a ‘low IQ war hawk’ after she campaigned for Harris and praised her character.
‘Liz Cheney lost her Congressional Seat by the largest margin in the history of Congress for a sitting Representative. The people of Wyoming are really smart!’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.