Some Republicans joined liberals in expressing little sorrow over the death of former Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney, one of the most polarizing political figures in modern US history, died on Monday night at the age of 84 due to complications from pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease. The former vice president was the architect of the Iraq war following the 9/11 terrorist attacks under the George Bush administration.
Liberals criticized Cheney throughout his vice presidential terms, gifting him the infamous nickname ‘Darth Vader.’ In recent years, however, Cheney found new enemies on the MAGA right after endorsing Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in the 2024 election. Former Rep. George Santos , a recently pardoned Trump loyalist, referred to Cheney as a ‘war criminal’ hours after his death was announced.
‘Dick Cheney will meet his maker and will have lots of explaining to do,’ Santos wrote on X. ‘I wish his family well all things considered, but I haven’t and won’t ever shed a tear for a war criminal of his ilk.’ Bernie Sanders’ former foreign policy adviser, Matt Druss, slashed the deceased vice president for causing ‘immeasurable human suffering.’
‘Dick Cheney was the author of immeasurable human suffering and an architect of American decline,’ Druss told his X followers. ‘He left our country, and our world, a crueler and more lawless place. He escaped accountability in life, he shouldn’t in death.’ Cheney rose the political ranks of Washington, DC throughout the 1970s as a political staffer in the Nixon White House. By 1989, President George HW Bush appointed him to lead the Pentagon as secretary of defense.
Under the young Bush presidency, Cheney was the most powerful operator on foreign and domestic policy, while overseeing a vast network intelligence apparatus utilizing technological tools of mass surveillance for tens of millions of Americans. Near the end of his vice presidential career, Cheney often faced allegations of being a ‘war criminal’ for his role in pushing the Iraq war. ‘The only thing sad about Dick Cheney’s death is that it did not happen inside an Iraqi prison,’ wrote journalist Alan MacLeod, a liberal journalist known for his anti-interventionist editorial stance.
Other right-wing accounts joined Santos in his criticisms of Cheney following the news of the vice president’s death. ‘Dick Cheney just died. The man who killed over a million innocent civilians to see his Halliburton stock go up,’ said popular right-wing X account Kim Dotcom. Popular conservative X account Tony Sergua added, ‘He lied about weapons of mass destruction. He is the reason so many American soldiers died or where maimed.’
‘Hell is hot. Eternity is a long time. Good riddance,’ wrote pro-MAGA X user Bad Hombre. Cheney’s family issued a statement on Tuesday morning announcing his death by noting that the former vice president died surrounded by his two daughters and longtime wife, former Second Lady Lynne Cheney. ‘His beloved wife of 61 years, Lynne, his daughters, Liz and Mary, and other family members were with him as he passed,’ the Cheney family said in a statement.
‘Dick Cheney was a great and good man who taught his children and grandchildren to love our country, and to live lives of courage, honor, love, kindness, and fly fishing.’ After the passing of a vice president, the current president typically orders the American flag to be flown at half-staff for ten days. For the passing of a former vice president, it is customary to lower the flag but not mandatory.
Trump, however, has had a very contentious relationship with the Cheney family and the decision will ultimately be left to him. The Daily Mail reached out to White House for comment on the matter. Cheney’s eldest daughter, former Rep. Liz Cheney led the impeachment effort and subsequent January 6th investigation committee, following the 2021 Capitol riot. Trump reacted by pushing for Cheney’s ouster from House GOP leadership and defeating her in a primary election by backing Cheney’s opponent.
