Political strategist Dr. Basil A. Smikle told Newsweek on Saturday that the Cheney family’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris gives Republicans and independents “permission” to vote for the Democratic presidential nominee.
This week, Harris scored the endorsement of former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, former Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney. Both devout conservatives, Dick and Liz Cheney have been critical of former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, especially after his supporters laid siege to the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. In their separate endorsements, Dick and Liz Cheney called Trump a “threat” and a “danger,” respectively.
In an email to Newsweek on Saturday afternoon, Smikle, an MSNBC political analyst and part-time lecturer of international and public affairs at Columbia University, said, “The Cheney endorsements help provide that permission structure for Republicans and independents who may have stayed home to come out and vote for her.”
Smikle said that campaigns are additive, meaning that they try to gain voters rather than “reduce support by doubling down on polarizing ideology. Harris is moving to the middle to capture more voters.”
“Her campaign realized that they need to appear cohesive, focused, and forward-thinking with inspirational and aspirational messages about opportunities in a Democratic administration,” Smikle added.
When reached for comment by Newsweek on Saturday afternoon, Trump’s communications director Steven Cheung said via email, “Who’s Basil A. Smikle?”
On Wednesday, Liz Cheney said in a video posted to X, formerly Twitter, “Because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”
“In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Dick Cheney said in a statement on Friday. “He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again.”
Newsweek reached out to Liz Cheney for comment and the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation where Dick Cheney is a trustee for comment from him via email on Saturday afternoon.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
On January 6, 2021, Trump’s violent mob of supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a failed attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden‘s 2020 election victory following repeated claims from Trump that the election was stolen from him via widespread voter fraud. There is no evidence to support such claims.
The former president faces four felonies for his alleged actions to subvert the 2020 election and over 1,488 people have been charged for their alleged actions on January 6. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him and claims the case is politically motivated.
Liz Cheney, who served Wyoming’s at-large district from 2017 to 2023 and was third in GOP House leadership, was at the Capitol when the insurrection occurred and served as one of only two Republicans on the House select committee tasked with investigating the events surrounding that day.
Trump attacked the Cheney family following their endorsement of Harris in a social media post on his platform Truth Social.
“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 on Friday.
Liz Cheney lost her GOP primary in Wyoming to Trump-backed candidate Harriet Hageman in 2022. The loss marked the second-worst defeat for a House incumbent in 60 years and was not “the largest margin in the History of Congressional Races” as Trump claimed.
Trump continued in his Truth Social post: “He’s 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!”
Dick Cheney was vilified by Democrats in the past over the George W. Bush administration’s handling of the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Trump wrote on Friday that Liz Cheney’s actions “with the Unselect Committee of Political Losers is unthinkable,” and accused the bipartisan panel of lawmakers of deleting evidence related to the investigation, despite there being no evidence of such claims and members of the committee pushing back on his claims.
Smikle told Newsweek on Saturday that Trump’s campaign strategy “has been to double down on rather antiquated, if not belligerent, views toward women and resurrected racial and gendered critiques of black women in particular in positions of power.”
He added: “Those actions, even among Republicans that may be inclined to vote for him, don’t traditionally entice exponentially more voters to run to the polls or speak with intensity about their support. He’ll certainly have his base, but growth is another story.”