Former President George W. Bush has made no secret about his disdain for Donald Trump. Now he’s taking it a step further by holding a fund-raiser next month in Dallas for Trump foe Rep. Liz Cheney.
The news that Bush will be a “special guest” at the Oct. 18 fundraiser was first reported in a Tweet by Politico’s Congress reporter Olivia Beavers.
The guest list includes other familiar names from the Bush political world: political strategist Karl Rove, former Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, former White House Communications Director Karen Hughes and former White House counsel Harriet Miers.
Trump has made the daughter of Bush’s former vice president, Dick Cheney, his top target for 2022. Earlier this month he endorsed Cheney’s primary opponent Harriet Hageman, a property rights attorney.
In his endorsement, Trump said: "Unlike RINO Liz Cheney, Harriet is all in for America First. Harriet has my Complete and Total Endorsement in replacing the Democrats number one provider of sound bites, Liz Cheney."
Now there’s no mistaking that Cheney is a hard-core conservative. She followed the party line by voting against raising the debt ceiling this week.
But she faces an uphill battle in the primary. Republicans in several Wyoming counties voted to stop recognizing her as a member of the GOP.
Cheney was stripped of the No. 3 House Republican leadership position after voting to impeach Trump following the 1/6 Capitol insurrection.
But Cheney’s fortunes could change if Trump takes a big fall. Trump could be indicted for tax fraud in New York or election tampering in Georgia. He also faces multiple lawsuits by women who claim he abused them, Capitol Police officers, and his niece, Mary, among others.
Cheney is the vice chair of the House select panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, which could uncover evidence that Trump was deeply involved in plotting the insurrection.
In 2016, Bush did not vote for Trump, who had humiliated his brother Jeb, the former Florida governor, in the primary campaign. Bush cast a write-in vote for his former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice in the 2020 presidential election.
On the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Bush appeared to liken the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol to al-Qaida terrorists. Bush spoke in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the site of Flight 93’s crash that killed all 40 passengers and four hijackers, preventing a possible attack on the Capitol or some other Washington landmark.
“There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home,” Bush said. “But in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit. And it is our continuing duty to confront them.”
Trump quickly fired back in a statement that noted that “the World Trade Center came down during [Bush’s] watch. Bush led a failed and uninspiring presidency. He shouldn’t be lecturing anybody!”
So it’s game on between the two former Republican presidents. Is Bush a political has-been or could he make a difference in the 2022 campaign?