Dick Cheney is dead.
A family statement, per the Associated Press, said that Cheney died due to “complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease.” He was 84.
“Dick Cheney was a great and good man who taught his children and grandchildren to love our country, and to live lives of courage, honor, love, kindness, and fly fishing,” the family said Tuesday, Nov. 4. “We are grateful beyond measure for all Dick Cheney did for our country. And we are blessed beyond measure to have loved and been loved by this noble giant of a man.”
Cheney served as vice president to George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009, having previously worked under Bush's father, George H. W. Bush, as secretary of defense.
To say that Cheney was a controversial figure in American politics, particularly in the aftermath of 9/11, would be a profound understatement. He was known for infamous statements, like the time he claimed U.S. troops would be “greeted as liberators” when speaking about the Iraq War.
Asked about widely criticized surveillance programs and enhanced interrogation techniques in 2013, Cheney, then four years removed from his time as VP, defended such tactics.
“When people say torture, that may be their opinion, but with respect to the attorneys and the lawyers that are charged with reviewing what we do, it was not torture,” Cheney told CNN at the time. “I don’t believe it was torture. … It was the right thing to do.”
In 2018, Oscar-winning actor Christian Bale played Cheney in Adam McKay’s Vice, also starring Sam Rockwell as George W. Bush and Amy Adams as Dick’s wife, Lynne Cheney. When taking home the Golden Globe for Best Actor the following year, Bale drew laughs from the crowd with a mention of “Satan” in his acceptance speech.
“Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration on how to play this role,” Bale said.
Later that year, Sacha Baron Cohen found himself in a similar situation when expressing gratitude for the Emmy nominations for his Who Is America? series.
“While I am flattered at these nods, it is a shame that my co-stars were not recognized,” the actor and comedian said of the nominations for the series, which featured Cheney. “Particularly Dick Cheney, who I had hoped would come across on camera as someone who’d gleefully sent hundreds of thousands to their pointless death – and boy did he deliver. I’ve played some lunatics in my time, but the look of vacuous evil in his eyes as he autographed a waterboard kit, would put Daniel Day Lewis to shame.”
In more recent years, Cheney, a Republican, surprised many by breaking from the majority in his party to speak out vehemently against the dangers of Trump’s rise in America politics. In the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, Cheney announced that he would be voting for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.