Former President George W. Bush has revealed that he will not endorse a candidate in the 2024 election.
Bush’s announcement comes after his vice president, Dick Cheney, announced that he would be endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donald Trump, as Resist the Mainstream previously reported.
NBC News asked the former Republican president whether he or his wife, Laura Bush, would be throwing their support behind one of the presidential candidates this fall.
Bush’s office issued a one-word response: “No.”
The office pointed out that Bush “retired” from the political arena years ago.
Interestingly, Bush’s refusal to endorse a candidate is a stark contrast to Cheney, who has constantly criticized Trump in past years.
“In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Cheney wrote.
“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. … That is why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris,” he claimed.
On Saturday, Harris praised Cheney for his endorsement, saying she was “honored,” according to The Hill.
“And them stepping up to make this public statement, I think is courageous, but also for the folks I was just talking with, it really reinforces for them that we love our country and we have more in common than what separates us,” the vice president said.
Like her father, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said she would be supporting Harris, arguing that “as a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this, and 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,” per The Hill.
Trump responded to Cheney’s statement by issuing a scathing rebuke of the former Republican vice president, calling him an “irrelevant RINO,” meaning “Republican in name only.”
“Dick Cheney is an irrelevant RINO, along with his daughter, who lost by the largest margin in the History of Congressional Races! They couldn’t get Scooter Libby, who did so much for them (but was so unfairly treated!), PARDONED,” Trump said on Truth Social.
“I did it! He’s the King of Endless, Nonsensical Wars, wasting Lives and Trillions of Dollars, just like Comrade Kamala Harris,” he added.
“I am the Peace President, and only I will stop World War III! What Liz Cheney did with the Unselect Committee of Political Losers is unthinkable. She and her Unselects deleted and destroyed all evidence and information — IT’S GONE. Much of it proved that Nancy Pelosi was responsible for J6 — DIDN’T PROVIDE SECURITY. Cheney and the others should be prosecuted for what they did, but Comrade Kamala is even worse,” Trump concluded.
As the Washington Examiner noted, this isn’t the first time Bush has sat out during an election season. In 2016, the former president did not support either Trump or former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Four years later, Bush wrote in ex-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for president instead of then-candidate Joe Biden or Trump.
