JD Vance sparked a firestorm of criticism against Liz Cheney on Thursday, which enraged certain Republican Party elements. Cheney recently endorsed Kamala, citing Donald Trump’s danger to the nation.
After joining forces with Nancy Pelosi to form the January 6th Committee, the former congresswoman was long out of favor among Republicans. The committee was exposed for suppressing and manipulating evidence to present an unbalanced, highly political narrative. This included not sharing any testimony that would corroborate Trump’s claim he requested the deployment of the National Guard.
Vance slammed Cheney after the endorsement and attacked her for her foreign policy.
.@JDVance annihilates Liz Cheney after she endorsed Kamala earlier today: “The next presidency of Donald Trump will make sure people like Liz Cheney are laughed out of the Oval Office instead of rewarded. This is a person whose entire career has been about sending other peoples’… pic.twitter.com/GrpHg3uJ4a
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 5, 2024
VANCE: I think the best, if not the best, thing about Donald Trump’s next presidency is that he will make sure that people like Liz Cheney, who are adamantly against the war in Afghanistan, and her ridiculous ideas of turning the country into a liberal democracy, won’t be rewarded. Liz Cheney has spent her entire career sending children to die in Afghanistan for her military conflicts, and for her absurd ideas that we would somehow turn Afghanistan into a liberal democracy. She was willing to kill thousands of your children for this.
Liz Cheney: You know what? I think that it’s a great thing for her to support Kamala Harris. You’re right. Blessed are the peacemakers. Liz Cheney and Kamala Harris make for very, very interesting business partners. They become rich when America’s children and grandchildren die. They become richer when America loses rather than wins wars and when America becomes weaker around the world. We want American power, American security, and, most importantly, world peace.
Vance’s remarks are not new. Right-wing critics of Cheney’s policy have been around long before Donald Trump became a political topic. Some Republicans are still unwilling to discuss the moral and practical legitimacy behind America’s foreign wars.
This is revolting from a vice presidential nominee who is too smart to pretend to be this ignorant and–maybe even worse–unclever. Vance is dumbing himself down for the worst ppl on the right. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. https://t.co/RL7AhvmcBA
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) September 5, 2024
Maybe I’m “the worst person,” but I can’t see what is “revolting,” about Vance’s overall message. Cheney has vigorously promoted disastrous foreign wars (and denigrated those who opposed them), which have resulted in hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of unnecessarily dying people. As I wrote in 2023 there is a moral question regarding someone who acts like that and shows no regret.
I find it amazing that someone who has legitimately caused the deaths of millions in Libya, Iraq, and Syria through his direct policy initiatives can still claim to be on a moral high ground. It’s a woman, not a man, who instead of opposing Obama’s bombing of Libya, encouraged him to do more. Libya has become hell on Earth and the largest modern slave market in the world.
Cheney has never shown regret for the results of the civil war in Syria, which was a wasteful conflict that cost more than half a million lives. What do you call a person who is responsible for such pain and death but shows no remorse at all? You call them a psychopath.
One could perhaps defend the nation-building exercise in Afghanistan, given that Al Qaeda used it as a safe haven. Cheney’s fierce, and often vicious, support of foreign wars goes far beyond that. Libya and Syria are, as I said above, the two most egregious cases. No plan was in place to bring about a regime change. The United States instead allied itself with literal Islamists, including jihadist of groups such as the Al-Nusra Front to prolong and expand a civil conflict that killed over half a million people.
What for? So Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton could sound tough on CNN. These people who died were real. They had friends and families. They should not have been treated as faceless fodder by the most selfish and vapid people on Earth.
When you say this, I can understand why people want to accuse you of supporting dictators. But the world isn’t black and white. In places such as the Middle East or North Africa, decisions are often made based on minimizing the death toll while accepting the least bad outcome. Has Cheney’s foreign policies in Libya and Syria resulted in better or worse outcomes than the status quo? No sane individual could suggest the opposite. Libya is a modern-day slave state, Syria remains under the control of Bashar al-Assad, and radical Islamist terrorists have taken over large parts of Syria.
It’s not “revolting”, but it is necessary. Vance’s suggestion that people such as Cheney made money from these wars is part of what makes his words so offensive. But is that not true? Has Cheney made a lot of money because of her political success based on her supposed expertise in foreign policy? It is not necessary to look at her investments to reach this conclusion. Many politicians have become famous and rich over the years while denying any responsibility for the deaths of so many people. This is just as morally repugnant, however flawed Donald Trump may be.
