Bush’s chief of staff, Freddy Ford, told CNN on Friday that Bush plans to praise Liz Cheney during a call on Saturday with his former vice president, her father, Dick Cheney.
“President Bush is planning to call VP Cheney tomorrow for two reasons: to wish him a happy 80th birthday and to thank him for his daughter’s services,” Ford said on Friday.
The show of encouragement comes when young Cheney faces intraparty criticism for joining nine other House Republicans and all House Democrats in the vote to impeach Trump earlier this month for “inciting insurrection” in light of his role in encouraging the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. While House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, objected to impeachment, Republican Party leaders did not lobby their members to object, and Cheney told the conference it was a “vote of conscience”.
CNN reported on Friday that Trump is focusing his political energy on attacking Cheney, an impulse that arises while McCarthy is working to strengthen his relationship with the former president, including a meeting with Trump at his Palm Beach resort, Mar- a-Lago, in Quinta.
According to a source, Trump has repeatedly questioned his Republican allies about efforts to remove Cheney from his leadership position and put a primary candidate against her. He has shown these allies a poll commissioned by his PAC Save America, which aims to show that Cheney’s impeachment vote has damaged his position in Wyoming, even urging them to talk about the poll on television.
The risk of voting against the former president did not go unnoticed by the Republicans who did.
“I did this knowing full well that it could very well be terminal for my career,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican who also voted for Trump’s impeachment, told CNN about his vote. “But I also knew that I couldn’t live with myself having, you know, just trying to protect him and I just felt that the one time I was called on to do a really difficult duty, I didn’t do it.”
Saturday’s planned call to Cheney is not the first time Bush has opposed Trump. Bush ridiculed the rioters who invaded the Capitol, saying that “this is how election results are disputed in a banana republic – not in our democratic republic”.
“I am shocked by the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election and the lack of respect shown today by our institutions, our traditions and our law enforcement,” he added. “The violent attack on the Capitol – and the interruption of a Congressional meeting ordered by the Constitution – was undertaken by people whose passions were ignited by lies and false hopes.”
Bush had congratulated President-elect Joe Biden on a phone call after the election and said that while Trump had the right to pursue legal challenges and recounts, the 2020 race was “fundamentally fair” and “its outcome is clear”. He also attended Biden’s inauguration, but Trump did not, fleeing the city before the traditional meeting between departing and arriving leaders.
“Although we have political differences, I know that Joe Biden is a good man, who has gained the opportunity to lead and unify our country,” Bush said in a subsequent statement. “The president-elect reiterated that although he runs as a Democrat, he will rule for all Americans. I offered him the same thing that I offered to Presidents Trump and Obama: my prayers for his success and my promise to help in whatever way I can.”
CNN’s Michael Warren, Paul LeBlanc, Eric Bradner, Annie Grayer, Daniella Diaz, Alex Rogers, Lucy Kafanov and Jason Kravarik contributed to this report.
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