Former Representative Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, rebuked GOP vice presidential nominee Ohio Senator JD Vance on Sunday for his "stunning" attacks on former officials who served in Donald Trump's White House.
The former congresswoman has been campaigning alongside Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, this election cycle in a push to win over GOP voters for the Democratic ticket. Cheney, who has endorsed Harris, has been a longtime vocal critic of Trump.
As Election Day quickly approaches, John Kelly, Trump's longest-serving White House chief of staff, told The Atlantic and The New York Times that the former president repeatedly praised Germany's Nazi-era dictator Adolf Hitler during his term in the White House. The reports, which described the Republican nominee as a "fascist," were published earlier this month.
In an interview with CNN's State of Union on Sunday, host Jake Tapper spoke about Kelly's remarks, asking Vance, "Why shouldn't Americans listen to somebody who worked closely with Trump?"
Vance, in the pre-taped interview, responded: "If you actually look at John Kelly and folks like Liz Cheney, the fundamental disagreement they have with Donald Trump is that even though they say they are conservative, they are conservative in the sense that they want America to get involved in a ton of ridiculous military conflicts. They want America to police the world," Vance said.
However, Tapper interjected, "John Kelly lost a son in Afghanistan...I've never heard John Kelly saying he supports the war in Afghanistan or Iraq."
Vance continued: "I know the people who have attacked Donald Trump...they'll say that he's a dictator when what they really mean is Donald Trump wouldn't listen to the leadership of the military when they wanted him to start ridiculous conflicts."
Also appearing on State of the Union on Sunday, Cheney responded to Vance's remarks.
"What we just watched is what it looks like when someone has gotta go through unbelievable contortions to try to find a way to defend the person that JD Vance himself called America's Hitler. And so many stunning attacks."
In June, Vance told the Times that he "first met Trump in 2021" and changed his opinions on the former president soon after.
Cheney continued on Sunday: "...But for JD Vance to be going after retired four-star marine general, Gold Star father John Kelly, for him to be attacking and lashing out like that at vice president [Mike] Pence. I mean what they understand, the Trump campaign, Donald Trump, JD Vance, what they absolutely understand how damaging it is for the American people to see all of these unprecedented levels of senior officials from the Trump administration telling the American people that Donald Trump is unfit," Cheney said. "So they concoct these things that are completely divorced from any connection from the truth to lash out and attack."
Newsweek has reached out to Trump's campaign and Vance's spokesperson via email for comment.
While it's unclear what specific attacks Cheney is referring to when mentioning Pence, the relationship between him and Trump has soured after refusing to reject the results of the 2020 election, resulting in threats from Trump supporters against the then-vice president during the ensuing January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Pence has since criticized the campaigns of Trump and Harris in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, despite saying in August that he would endorse neither candidate and that he pledged to "stay out of the presidential campaign."
"The 2024 election is unusual in that both candidates have a record in the White House," Pence wrote. "It's the first election in which both candidates are running away from those records."
More than a dozen former Trump administration officials have recently signed a letter supporting Kelly's comments with some signatories having publicly backed Harris' campaign, while others have warned that Trump is unfit for office.
The letter, first reported by Politico, reads: "We are all lifelong Republicans who served our country. However, there are moments in history where it becomes necessary to put country over party. This is one of those moments."
It urged Americans to "heed General Kelly's warning. We applaud General Kelly for highlighting in stark details the danger of a second Trump term."
Steven Cheung, Trump's campaign spokesperson, previously told Newsweek on Friday, "This is nothing more than disgruntled, former low-level employees who had remarkably undistinguished careers in government and are now trying to survive as Never Trump pundits fighting over cable news contracts. The fact remains they did not serve their country and President well, and will have to live with that dishonor for the rest of their miserable lives."
While it is unclear what impact Kelly's reported comments will have on voters, several political commentators and analysts have referred to Kelly's remarks as potentially an October surprise, with commentator Charlie Sykes calling it an "October shock, rather than a surprise," in an MSNBC opinion article.
An October surprise is a major, narrative-changing piece of news that could upend the presidential race in its final stretch as it could tip the scales in the extremely tight race between Trump and Harris.
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