WASHINGTON – Cutting a campaign ad for daughter and embattled Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney, former Vice President Dick Cheney blistered former President Donald Trump on Thursday as a direct threat to the future of the nation.
“In the 246-year history of our nation, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our Republic than Donald Trump,” the former vice president said in an extraordinary attack on a former president of the same party.
Cheney, an underdog in his re-election bid against Trump-backed challenger Harriet Hagemanhas described the former president in similar terms during her tenure in the special congressional commission investigating the insurrection of January 6, 2021.
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During a series of hearings, Cheney and other committee members accused Trump of orchestrating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol in an effort to illegally overturn his election loss to President Joe Biden.
In the ad, the elder Cheney said Trump knows he lost the election and accused him of lying to his supporters about false claims of voter fraud. He called Trump “a coward” and said “a real man would not lie to his supporters.”
The former vice president also suggested that his daughter’s work on the investigation is in part an effort to prevent Trump from winning the presidency again in the 2024 election.
“There is nothing more important for her to do than lead the effort to make sure Donald Trump is never near the Oval Office again,” Cheney said in the announcement. “And she will succeed.”
The Republican primary in Wyoming is on August 16.
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Trump has attacked Bush, Cheney
Trump has for years attacked Dick Cheney and former President George W. Bush on issues ranging from free trade to the invasion of Iraq.
Tim Murtaugh, Hageman’s political adviser, said Cheney’s announcement is designed to attract only donors who could fund his “fever dream” of running for president.
“Voters know that she has abandoned her job of representing Wyoming and is instead pursuing her own personal war with Donald Trump,” Murtaugh said. “That’s why people are sick of her, and this ad only reinforces that point.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dick Cheney calls Donald Trump a ‘threat’ in Liz Cheney ad