WASHINGTON: Former US Vice President Dick Cheney has attacked ex-President Donald Trump, calling him a "coward who lost big" and who poses the "greatest threat to our Republic" in what appears to be a vociferous defence for his daughter Liz Cheney, Vice Chair of the January 6 Capitol Hill insurrection panel, a target of Trump and Republicans' ire for her statements in the panel against Trump for "dereliction of duty".
Dick Cheney, known as a Vice President who yielded enormous power under George W. Bush's presidency as a Republican, branded Trump as the greatest "threat to our Republic" in a new campaign ad for his daughter Liz Cheney, who is running for re-election in Wyoming.
Poll pundits rate her re-election chances as fairly low with Republicans campaigning for her opposite GOP candidate Hariet Hageman, who has endorsed Trump's claims of a 2020 stolen election.
"In our nation's 236-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our Republic than Donald Trump, " said Dick Cheney, who served as Vice President for two terms under George W. Bush.
"He (Trump) tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He is a coward. A real man wouldn't lie to his supporters. He lost his election, and he lost big. I know it, he knows it, and deep down I think most Republicans know it, " Dick Cheney was quoted by The Guardian in the campaign ad for his daughter Liz Cheney seeking re-election from Wyoming in the midterms for the House of Representatives. .
Dick Cheney also said how proud he was of his daughter "for standing up to the truth, doing what's right, honouring her oath to the Constitution when so many in our party are too scared to do so".
The one-minute ad featured the elder Cheney's sharpest public attacks against Trump to date. Best known as the most powerful Vice President in American history, and a major figure in leading the US to war in Iraq, he has taken to defending his daughter in her fight against Trump.
"There's nothing more important she will ever do than lead the effort to make sure Donald Trump is never near the Oval Office. And she will succeed, " he said in the ad.
The younger Cheney has been widely praised by liberals as vice-chairwoman of the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill.
Liz Cheney has been one of Trump's most pointed critics, accusing him of violating the Constitution for his role in the insurrection. In return, she has been largely ostracised from her party. Cheney faces an uphill re-election battle against the Trump-backed candidate Harriet Hageman, who maintains that the 2020 election was stolen.
"Liz Cheney has long forgotten she works for Wyoming (or perhaps she never knew), not the Radical Democrats. Wyoming deserves a Congresswoman who will represent us and our conservative values. It's time to retire the elitist Liz Cheney, " Hageman tweeted on Thursday.
Though Liz Cheney has at least a million dollars more in donations to her campaign against Hageman, she was 22 points behind Hageman in a July poll conducted by the Casper Star-Tribune.
In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Liz Cheney said she does not expect to lose on August 16.
"I really believe that the people of Wyoming fundamentally understand how important fidelity to the constitution is � understand how important it is that we fight for those fundamental principles on which everything else is based, " she said.