Name: What made Dick Cheney such a powerful vice president?
Uploaded: 2025-11-05T00:20:24.795Z
Duration: 3 min 27 s
Description: Former Vice President Dick Cheney has died at the age of 84. He is often referred to as the most powerful vice president in U.S. history, serving alongside former President George W. Bush for eight years.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney has died at the age of 84. He is often referred to as the most powerful vice president in U.S. history, serving alongside former President George W. Bush for eight years.

Washington

Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has died at the age of 84 due to complications from pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease. Cheney served as vice president under George W. Bush for eight years and previously held several key government roles, including Defense Secretary and White House Chief of Staff.

Cheney was widely regarded as an influential and sometimes controversial figure, known for his advocacy of strong executive powers and his involvement in the Iraq War. He and his daughter, Liz Cheney, made headlines for endorsing Democrat Kamala Harris for president, reflecting his strong opposition to Donald Trump and his consistent political principles.

What made Dick Cheney such a powerful vice president?

The US is mourning the loss of a giant in American politics. Former Vice President Dick Cheney died last night at the age of 84. Cheney is often referred to as the most powerful Vice President in US history, serving alongside former President George W. Bush for eight years. Before that, he worked under multiple other administrations with roles including Defense Secretary, White House Chief of Staff, and Congressman. Cheney's family said he died from complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease. In a statement, they wrote that he taught his children and grandchildren to, quote, live lives of courage, honor, love, kindness, and fly fishing. Former President George W. Bush also said, quote, history will remember him as among the finest public servants of his generation. For more, let's bring in Steve Hayes. He's an editor at The Dispatch. And he also is the author of Cheney, The Untold Story of America's Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President. Thank you so much for being here. What made him so powerful? I think the thing that made him most powerful was that he had earned the trust of George W. Bush from the very first days. When I interviewed George W. Bush, this is about six, seven years into the Bush administration, one of the things that kept coming up in my conversations with him was just how he didn't have to worry about Dick Cheney running to the media or trying to build up his own political career, thinking about the next election that Dick Cheney wanted to run in. The fact that Cheney kept this cone of silence, would just give George W. Bush his advice on the issues of the day, I think was pretty significant in the eyes of George W. Bush. And the former vice president made a lot of headlines when he and his daughter, former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris for president. What factored into that decision? Why was that so important to him? Yeah, I think it was really interesting. I mean, a lot of Republicans were surprised that he went as far as to endorse Kamala Harris. But I think if you look at the criticisms that he had lodged of current president Donald Trump, it's pretty consistent that he would have raised warnings. He cut an ad warning about Donald Trump, said he was the most dangerous individual ever in the history of the United States, to the future of the Republic, gave specific warnings, supported his daughter, of course, in the arguments that she was making about Donald Trump as a threat to the Republic. And I think it sort of followed from there that he decided if it's not gonna be Donald Trump, it's gonna be Kamala Harris. He was a force, but he was also certainly controversial, particularly when it came to expanding executive powers, particularly related to the Iraq War. How do Americans reconcile that legacy with his choosing essentially country over party? That's very interesting. I mean, Dick Cheney has a long and consistent history of supporting executive power. In fact, the day after he was elected to congressional leadership, back when he ran for Congress in the late 1970s, early 80s, he was elected to congressional leadership and he participated in a think tank debate against Newt Gingrich in which Newt Gingrich was arguing in favor of greater legislative power and Dick Cheney, new to congressional leadership, was arguing in favor of expanded executive power. Part of that was a reaction to the curbs on executive power that came after the Nixon administration. So I think he makes a consistent argument, principled argument on behalf of executive power, although I wonder if he would like the way that executive power is being used today. All right, Steve Hayes, thank you for coming on. Thank you.

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