Former Vice President Dick Cheney dies at 84

As vice president under George W. Bush, Cheney fiercely defended the 2003 invasion of Iraq despite the U.S. failing to find weapons of mass destruction in the country, which the Bush administration had claimed were a major threat given what it alleged were the Hussein government’s links to al Qaeda. He also rebuked Democrats for accusations that the Bush administration manipulated intelligence to invade Iraq, calling the attacks “dishonest and reprehensible.”

While the former vice president was not as visibly active in politics after he left the White House in 2009, he became an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump in recent years. Cheney said during the general election last year that he would vote for the Democratic nominee, then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. In a 2022 ad for his daughter, then-Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., he warned, “In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.”

Liz Cheney, herself a vocal Trump critic over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, ultimately lost the race.

As vice president in 2006, Cheney accidentally shot then-78-year-old Harry Whittington as they hunted quail on a Texas ranch who survived the incident.

Cheney had various health issues over the years, including multiple heart attacks, and in 2012 he received a heart transplant.

He is survived by his wife Lynne, and his daughters, Liz and Mary Cheney, and other family members.