Cheney calls on Bush to endorse Harris: 'It's time'

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) urged former President Bush to endorse Vice President Harris during an episode of the The New Yorker’s Radio Hour that aired on Friday.

“I can’t explain why George W. Bush hasn’t spoken out but I think it’s time, and I wish that he would,” Cheney said during the recording at The New Yorker Festival.

The GOP leader is one of the highest profile members to publicly criticize former President Trump while actively campaigning for Vice President Harris. However, in recent days, former President Bush’s daughter, Barbara has also stepped out on the campaign trail to support Harris in the swing state of Pennsylvania. 

“It was inspiring to join friends and meet voters with the Harris-Walz campaign in Pennsylvania this weekend,” Bush told People Magazine in a statement Tuesday. “I’m hopeful they’ll move our country forward and protect women’s rights.”

Former President Bush has kept to his promise of not formally endorsing a candidate in the 2024 race. In September, Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney who served under Bush endorsed Harris.

“In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Vice President Cheney said of the Republican nominee in a 2022 ad for his daughter. 

Earlier this month, she campaigned for the Democratic nominee in her home state of Wisconsin, a battleground location that will be crucial in determining the next president.

At The New Yorker festival, Cheney also touched on The Washington Post's announcement that it would not endorse a presidential candidate earlier this week.

“When you have Jeff Bezos apparently afraid to issue an endorsement for the only candidate in the race who’s a stable responsible adult because he fears Donald Trump, that tells you why we have to work so hard to make sure that Donald Trump isn’t elected,” she said at the New Yorker Festival, adding that she cancelled her Post subscription.

After the news broke, Rep. Cheney shared that Bezos and potentially others' decision to remain neutral may have been made out of “fear.”

“And I think also, why we ought to not forget what has happened, forget who’s taken brave and courageous stands,” she said at the festival.