Former President George W. Bush has made an announcement about the 2024 presidential election in November, but he is taking a less prominent position than his vice president.
Bush, a Republican who served as a senator from 2001 to 2009, said in a statement Saturday that he has no plans to publicly endorse the bill or indicate how he or his wife, Laura, will vote.
“He retired from presidential politics years ago,” said the spokesman, who asked not to be named.
The announcement came a day after Bush Vice President Dick Cheney announced he would cross party lines and vote for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris over Republican former President Donald Trump.
Former President George W. Bush will not endorse a candidate for the 2024 election
Bush has decided not to support either candidate in the November presidential election.
Cheney, who served as vice president under Bush during his two terms, said Friday that “in the 248-year history of our country, there has never been a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.”
He added: “As citizens, we all have an obligation to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution. That’s why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.”
Cheney has been criticized over the years by human rights groups for his role in planning the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which have resulted in high civilian casualties and human rights violations.
His daughter Liz Cheney, a former US representative, said on Wednesday she would vote for Harris and called Trump a “danger”.
She also loudly criticized the current Republican presidential candidate, including for the storming of the US Capitol by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021.
Harris said Saturday that the Cheneys’ show of support for her was “courageous” because they put country ahead of political party.
“I feel honored that they’re supporting me,” Harris said at Penzey’s Spices in the Strip District during a break in debate preparations, where she greeted attendees and purchased spices.
Former Rep. Liz Cheney this week endorsed Kamala Harris, saying Friday that her father Dick Cheney would also vote for the vice president
Both Cheneys are former Republican leaders in the House of Representatives, with the elder Cheney serving two terms as George W. Bush’s Republican vice president between 2001 and 2009.
Harris was in Pittsburgh preparing for the September 10 debate against Republican rival Donald Trump, with whom she is in a neck-and-neck race ahead of the November 5 vote.
She said both Cheneys made a courageous statement that “it’s OK, but not important, to put country over party.”
“I think it’s courageous for them to make this public statement. But it’s also a confirmation for the people I just spoke to: we love our country and we have more in common than divides us,” Harris said.
Trump called Dick Cheney an “irrelevant RINO, along with his daughter” in a social media post on Friday, using a term he uses for Republicans who are disloyal to him: “Republicans in name only.”
Mike Pence, who served as vice president under Trump for four years, has said he will not support his former boss, but he has also not endorsed Harris.