Despite his hardline conservatism, Cheney became isolated from Republican leadership over his condemnation of President Donald Trump, whom he labeled the republic's greatest threat. His career concluded when he supported Democrat Kamala Harris in 2024, demonstrating how the Republican Party's populist shift had rejected his traditional conservatism. Heart disease affected Cheney throughout his adult life, yet he survived multiple cardiac episodes and lived years after his 2012 heart transplant, which he called "the gift of life itself," CNN reported.

On September 11, 2001, Cheney occupied the White House while Bush traveled. Witnessing the second aircraft strike New York's World Trade Center transformed him into someone committed to avenging al-Qaida's assault and imposing American authority across the Middle East. "At that moment, you knew this was a deliberate act. This was a terrorist act," he told CNN's John King in 2002. Operating from a fortified shelter beneath the White House, Cheney managed the traumatized nation's response, issuing the directive authorizing military forces to destroy additional hijacked jets approaching the White House or Capitol. The September 11 attacks triggered American intervention in Afghanistan to remove the Taliban, though al-Qaida commander Osama bin Laden escaped. Cheney then advocated expanding military action to Iraq and dictator Saddam Hussein, whose forces he had helped expel from Kuwait during the first Gulf conflict as President George H.W. Bush's defense chief.

The vice president's aggressive declarations regarding Iraq's purported weapons of mass destruction, supposed al-Qaida connections, and intention to arm terrorists significantly established justification for the 2003 invasion. Post-conflict investigations demonstrated Cheney and fellow officials overstated or mischaracterized defective intelligence concerning capabilities Iraq ultimately lacked. Among his most discredited assertions, that lead hijacker Mohamed Atta encountered Iraqi intelligence in Prague, never received confirmation. Yet Cheney maintained in 2005 that officials operated on "the best available intelligence," and argued any claim the data was "distorted, hyped, or fabricated" remained "utterly false."

The conflicts additionally guided America down troubling avenues including "enhanced interrogations" of terrorism suspects that opponents condemned as torture, though Cheney maintained methods such as waterboarding remained appropriate. He championed detaining suspects without trials at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a measure critics characterized as offending fundamental American principles, according to CNN.

Cheney departed office despised by Democrats with a 31% approval rating, as measured by the Pew Research Center. Throughout his remaining years, he voiced no remorse, convinced he had performed necessary actions responding to an assault that claimed nearly 2,800 lives and initiated almost 20 years of overseas conflicts. "I would do it again in a minute," Cheney stated when confronted by a 2014 Senate Intelligence Committee investigation that determined enhanced interrogation techniques as savage and ineffectual. Regarding Iraq, he informed said in 2015: "It was the right thing to do then. I believed it then and I believe it now," according to CNN.

During his final years, Cheney surfaced as an intense Trump opponent, despite backing him in 2016. Trump's refusal to acknowledge his 2020 electoral loss and the January 6 uprising prompted Cheney to protest publicly. His daughter, then-Representative Liz Cheney, sacrificed her Republican career to challenge Trump following his effort to reverse the election outcome. During a 2022 video for his daughter's unsuccessful primary fight, Dick Cheney stared into the camera beneath a cowboy hat and stated: "In our nation's 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump," adding "He is a coward. A real man wouldn't lie to his supporters. He lost his election, and he lost big. I know it. He knows it, and deep down, I think most Republicans know." Richard Bruce Cheney was born January 30, 1941, in Lincoln, Nebraska, and met his future wife Lynne Vincent in Casper, Wyoming. After struggling at Yale and receiving two drunk driving arrests, he received an ultimatum from Lynne, who had "made it clear she wasn't interested in marrying a lineman for the county," he told The New Yorker. "I buckled down and applied myself. Decided it was time to make something of myself," according to CNN.

Cheney commenced his Washington career as a Nixon aide, then became Donald Rumsfeld's deputy White House chief of staff under President Gerald Ford before succeeding him in 1975. He won Wyoming's House seat in 1978, serving six terms and advancing to minority whip with an extremely conservative record. President George H. W. Bush selected him as defense secretary in 1989, calling him a "trusted friend, advisor," and he managed the 1989 Panama invasion and 1991 Operation Desert Storm. During Bill Clinton's presidency, Cheney joined Halliburton as CEO. When the younger Bush sought office, Cheney led the running mate search and ultimately joined the ticket himself. "During the process, I came to the conclusion that the selector was the best person to be selected," Bush stated in the 2020 CNN documentary "President in Waiting."

Cheney's health issues began with a 1978 heart attack at 37, followed by three more in 1984, 1988, and November 2000. He stated he'd be the "the first to step down" if unable to fulfill his duties. After a fifth heart attack in 2010, he obtained a heart pump before his 2012 transplant. Following office, Cheney wrote two memoirs and became a vocal Obama critic. Years later, he condemned his own party's reaction to the Capitol assault, returning to the Capitol with Liz Cheney on January 6, 2021's one-year commemoration. "I am deeply disappointed at the failure of many members of my party to recognize the grave nature of the January 6 attacks and the ongoing threat to our nation," he stated. Democrats welcomed the former Republican vice president, with Nancy Pelosi embracing him in a scene that illustrated how Trump's transformation of American politics made former adversaries discover shared purpose defending democracy. "It's not leadership that resembles any of the folks I knew when I was here for 10 years," Cheney stated at the Capitol in 2022. He endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024 due to the "duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution," cautioning Trump "can never be trusted with power again," though Trump secured the presidency months later, CNN reported.

The post Former vice president Dick Cheney dead at 84 appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

As Republicans in the US House of Representatives prepare to decide whether or not to vote next week on removing Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) from the House GOP conference chair position, support for the legislator among Jewish Republicans remains high from years of being a close ally on Jewish issues in Congress and during the Bush administration.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said in a phone call with Jewish News Syndicate on Thursday that the RJC has supported Cheney and her father, former US Vice President Dick Cheney, for decades, and that is unlikely to change despite the current infighting within the House Republican caucus.

Brooks said both Cheney and her father have been "stalwart friends" and very supportive of issues critical to the RJC, which includes fostering a strong US-Israel relationship, a strong national defense and standing up to the threat of Iran developing a nuclear weapon.

He also noted that the organization is not going to interfere in leadership battles.

"The support for those who share our agenda and our values doesn't waiver on external, intra-party debates or leadership battles," said Brooks.

Cheney was viewed as a rising star in the GOP until she started dissenting with the majority of her party in the wake of the 2020 presidential election, openly disagreeing with former President Donald Trump's narrative that the November election was stolen.

She further criticized the former president in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, becoming one of 10 Republican House members to vote to impeach Trump for a second time and subsequently calling for a 9/11 commission-style investigation into what happened that day.

Calls for her to be removed from the No. 3 leadership position began early this year, culminating in a failed attempt to remove her through a secret ballot vote in February. At the time, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) supported Cheney to keep her seat.

But her continued outspokenness against Trump has led to a greater number of House Republicans, including McCarthy, expressing frustration over Cheney's suitability in remaining in such a prominent position while expressing opinions that run counter to the party's consensus. News site Axios reported on Tuesday that McCarthy was caught on a hot mic on the Fox News show "Fox and Friends" saying he has lost confidence in Cheney and "has had it with her."

'The Republican Party is at a turning point'

With a vote to remove Cheney from her leadership position looming, candidates to replace her have been coming forward, but none as prominent as 36-year-old Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who has received support from Trump and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.). Cheney was also censured by the Wyoming Republican Party in February for her impeachment vote and is facing a growing number of primary challengers for her at-large congressional district seat.

Meanwhile, she published an op-ed in the Washington Post on Wednesday, characterizing the battle for her leadership position as a fight between the party sticking to its values or following Trump and his "stolen election" premise. Cheney wrote that Trump "is seeking to unravel critical elements of our constitutional structure that make democracy work – confidence in the result of elections and the rule of law."

"The Republican Party is at a turning point," she wrote, "and Republicans must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution."

Brooks believes the debate is more about the party's vision going forward than creating a litmus test on devotion to Trump.

"The party and the leadership want to focus on issues that unite the party, how to put the emergency brakes on a runaway [US President Joe] Biden radical agenda, and how do we win back the House and the Senate," he explained.

He said that whatever happens in the leadership battle, it would not make a difference for the RJC or its donors, as the organization is focused on policy and issues.

He also sees no change in the party's direction on key RJC issues, whether it chooses to stay with Cheney or Stefanik, whose past campaigns the RJC also supported.

"There will be no change whatsoever regardless of who's in that position in terms of the unwavering support that the Republicans have for a strong US-Israel relationship, and combating Iranian aggression and Iranian efforts to get a nuclear weapon."

'We have to stabilize the situation'

Eytan Laor, a Republican bundler and Trump supporter who manages several political action committees, including American Principles PAC, said he believes Cheney should be removed from her leadership role for sowing disunity within the party at a time when it should be focused on a unified message to win back control of Congress in the 2022 midterm elections.

"We have to stabilize the situation, we need to get past – to whatever extent we can – the discord and the various … objections that have occurred, whether we believe the election was stolen or fraudulent or not, we just need to move forward," he said. "And [get past the] ongoing discussion and criticism of President Trump, who [people in] my circles pretty much believe he accomplished great things in spite of some of the controversial comments he's made along the way. He did accomplish a lot, and obviously, especially for the Jewish community, for Israel."

Laor said he sees plenty of evidence to suggest major election irregularities, but that voters are divided about whether to move on or continue challenging the election results.

"I personally think that the investigations into whether it was or not should continue, but I'm also for moving forward," he said. "Whatever we find here, I don't think we're going back and changing the results of the election, but we have to know what happened."

But to continue, Laor believes that Trump must remain a factor in the party – whether as a candidate or power broker – because he outperformed traditional Republicans in demographics, especially drawing more votes from the black and Hispanic communities.

This electoral advantage, as opposed to Cheney's relatively small impact, makes her expendable from Laor's perspective in favor of party unity.

'Cheney highly experienced, influential supporter of Israel'

Douglas J. Feith, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former US Under Secretary of Defense for policy in the George W. Bush administration, said it would be a mistake for the party to remove Cheney from the position and praised her for her policy knowledge, particularly as it relates to Israel and the Middle East.

Feith worked with Cheney in the Bush administration where Cheney was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs.

"… Liz Cheney herself is not only a strong supporter of the US-Israeli relationship, but because of her experience and knowledge and intelligence, she is an authoritative voice on the subject," said Feith. "So she's not just one vote out of 435 members of Congress. She's got real insight and knowledge to bring to the subject; I think she's got influence. And so her loss from the leadership would be the loss of a particularly highly experienced and influential supporter of Israel, and that's an important thing, completely without regard of who might replace her if she would be replaced."

While Feith said he's not a supporter of Trump, he noted that he and others who support the Jewish state can appreciate that Trump was unequivocally pro-Israel.

"I don't think any president of the United States since Israel's birth has supported Israel unequivocally and thought of creative ways of strengthening Israel and the US-Israel relationship as Trump did," said Feith. "He was an extremely good friend of Israel, though I think he did unforgivable things in the United States."

Feith attributes responsibility for the Jan. 6 Capitol riots to Trump, saying that it was a big blot on his presidency, and he also has not seen any evidence that supports the election was stolen.

More than that, he said he has always considered a commitment to conservative philosophy more important than party loyalty.

Joel Hoppenstein, a Republican donor, has in recent years held back his contributions, saying that he wants to see candidates who are strong fiscal conservatives but also able to reach outside of the Republican base. He said it would be wrong for the GOP to abandon Cheney and continue growing closer to Trump.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

While he believes that Trump built an excellent record of accomplishments as president, his lack of discipline, inability to stick to a campaign message and take advice from experts overshadowed his accomplishments during the election, which Hoppenstein said, was not "stolen."

He views the battle over Cheney as an internal refighting of the 2020 election, and that based on the result of the House races in 2020, said it's clear that the party does not need Trump to move forward successfully.

"It'll become quite clear when you look at how he did versus how the Republican Party did in the House and the Senate," said Hoppenstein. "I think the message that I would take away from it is that people like what he did, and they supported what he did. But they didn't like him."

 Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

The post Jewish Republicans divided over fate of Cheney in battle with Trump loyalists appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

In her social media remarks, the freshman congresswoman said, "The fact that concentrations camps are now an institutionalized practice in the Home of the Free is extraordinarily disturbing. … We are losing to an authoritarian and fascist presidency. I don't use those words lightly. … I use that word because that is what an administration that creates concentration camps is. A presidency that creates concentration camps is fascist, and it's very difficult to say that."

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

On Tuesday, she posted on Twitter, "This administration has established concentration camps on the southern border of the United States for immigrants, where they are being brutalized with dehumanizing conditions and dying."

In a hit against Republicans, Ocasio-Cortez added: "And for the shrieking Republicans who don't know the difference: concentration camps are not the same as death camps. Concentration camps are considered by experts as 'the mass detention of civilians without trial.' And that's exactly what this administration is doing."

Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) responded to Ocasio-Cortez by tweeting: "Please @AOC do us all a favor and spend just a few minutes learning some actual history. 6 million Jews were exterminated in the Holocaust. You demean their memory and disgrace yourself with comments like this."

Cheney later added, "Happy to help educate you @AOC. You could start with the @yadvashem survivor testimonies. I also recommend Night by Elie Wiesel. Here's an Amazon link to make it easy for you to purchase."

Several other pro-Israel and Jewish groups condemned Ocasio-Cortez's remarks.

"Six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. It is disgraceful for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to compare our nation's immigration policies to the horrors carried out by the Nazis. We would hope that Rep. Ocasio-Cortez knows better, but sadly, she does not," said the Republican Jewish Coalition on Tuesday.

"Before Representative Ocasio-Cortez makes a statement like that, I would suggest that she actually visit Auschwitz, and try to understand what actually took place there," Endowment for Middle East Truth founder and president Sarah Stern told JNS. "Her statement devalued the horrors of the Holocaust and of the 6 million who were systematically and purposely murdered. Statements such as these are ill-informed and flippant, and simply illustrate her vast ignorance."

"AOC should ask Holocaust survivors and ex-GIs who liberated Dachau what that charnel House was like," Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told JNS. "She is insulting victims of genocide."

The post Jewish groups, Rep Liz Cheney slam Ocasio-Cortez for comparing US border control to 'concentration camps' appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.