Tom Cotton Confronted Over Liz and Dick Cheney Endorsing Kamala Harris

In a Sunday morning appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, was confronted about the recent endorsements made by Republicans Liz and Dick Cheney for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

Cotton, an ally of former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, was asked twice by host Dana Bash about the impact of those endorsements. Both times, Cotton seemed to shrug off their importance.

“I covered the Bush-Cheney administration. I traveled a lot with Dick Cheney. He’s one of the most conservative Republicans alive today. It’s really remarkable that he endorsed a Democrat. What does that tell you about Donald Trump?” Bash asked Cotton.

“It’s a remarkable time in politics. You have a Cheney endorsing a Democrat, and a Kennedy endorsing a Republican,” the senator replied, noting former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recent backing of Trump after dropping out of this year’s race. “I think what it tells us is there’s a lot of ferment going on in politics. In the end, endorsements are not going to make a difference. It’s their record.”

Cotton said that “this is a very unusual presidential election” since “we’ve got a former president running for president for the first time in 100 years.”

“When Trump was president, prices were low, and wages were high. Under Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, we have record high inflation, a wide-open southern border and war everywhere you turn around the world. I know endorsements make news, but most Americans are going to make their decisions based on the records of these two candidates,” the GOP senator said.

Bash pushed back and noted that Kennedy Jr. has never been elected to public office. Meanwhile, Dick Cheney carries the cachet of being former President George W. Bush’s vice president for eight years, former President Gerald R. Ford’s chief of staff, and he served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 10 years.

“You don’t think his endorsement of a Democrat, with that kind of pedigree, is going to make a difference?” Bash asked.

Cotton, again, deflected and alluded that some of the animosity between the Cheneys and Trump derives from Liz Cheney’s defeat in her 2022 House primary race to pro-Trump candidate Harriet Hageman. Cheney, the incumbent who ran on a platform of opposing the former president, was soundly defeated by Hageman who took Cheney’s Wyoming U.S. House seat.

“No, I really don’t. Some of this is because Donald Trump beat his daughter by 39 points. Look, we had a president when he served in office who brought good times to America. Kamala Harris, a San Fransisco liberal, has brought to America what you see in San Fransico as well.”

Newsweek has reached out to Harris’ campaign via email for comment.

When reached for comment via email on Sunday morning, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung pointed Newsweek to Trump’s statement on Truth Social about Dick Cheney’s endorsement of Harris.

“Dick Cheney is an irrelevant RINO [Republican in Name Only], along with his daughter, who lost by the largest margin in the History of Congressional Races!” the former president wrote in a post on Truth Social Friday.

Trump also wrote on Truth Social that Dick Cheney is the “King of Endless, Nonsensical Wars, wasting Lives and Trillions of Dollars, just like Comrade Kamala Harris. I am the Peace President, and only I will stop World War III!”

Once vilified by Democrats for his role in the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Wyoming native now finds himself aligned with those he once opposed, all in the name of what the Cheney family views as safeguarding democracy.

Dick Cheney’s past criticisms of Trump are well-known. In 2016, he labeled Trump “a liberal Democrat,” yet went on to endorse him. However, by 2020, during Trump’s reelection bid, he distanced himself by featuring in an ad for his daughter’s failed Wyoming congressional campaign, calling Trump “a coward.”

Although Trump later pardoned Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who had been convicted on four felony counts related to a CIA leak scandal, it appears that no reconciliation followed.

Liz Cheney and her father have long been critical of Trump—particularly after his supporters rioted at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Liz Cheney served as vice chair of the House select committee that investigated the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. She has since authored Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning, in which she provides an insider account of the insurrection and discusses lingering threats to American democracy.

Speaking earlier this week at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy, the former congresswoman reiterated her position, saying she would not support Trump and instead cast her vote for Harris.

“As a conservative, as someone that believes in our Constitution, I have thought deeply about this,” she said in a video that has since gone viral. “Because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I am voting for Kamala Harris.”