WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance took a swipe at former two-term vice president Dick Cheney, a Trump critic who died last week, during a discussion with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a MAHA health event about his approach to the job.
Kennedy said Lyndon B. Johnson felt sidelined as vice president by his uncle, former President John F. Kennedy, while Cheney “seemed to be actually running the county” during George W. Bush’s administration.
“Not very well, as it turns out,” Vance interjected, with a laugh.
To which Kennedy replied: “We agree on that.”
U.S. Vice President JD Vance reacts as he participates in the inaugural Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) summit in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 12, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
Cheney died from complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease on Nov. 3. He was 84. His funeral will be held on Nov. 20 at the Washington National Cathedral.
The former Wyoming lawmaker, White House chief of staff and defense secretary was the architect of the “war on terror” and defended the Bush administration’s interrogation and indefinite detention of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay. He is considered the most powerful vice president in American history.
President Donald Trump has said the Bush administration made a “mistake” in taking the country to war with Iraq. Vance has also criticized the war, which he saw up close in 2005 as a combat correspondent in the Marines.
Trump has not commented on Cheney’s death, and the White House suggested last week that it wasn’t involved in his funeral arrangements.
“I don’t believe the White House is involved in that planning or at least hasn’t gotten to it yet. I know the president is aware of the former vice president’s passing and, as you saw, flags have been lowered to half-staff in accordance with statutory law,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said hours after Cheney’s family announced his death on Nov. 4.
The former Republican vice president’s daughter, former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, is also an outspoken Trump critic. She lost a primary for her House seat to a Trump-backed challenger in 2021 after she voted to impeach the Republican president over the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
She and her father endorsed former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election over Trump.
“He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him,” Dick Cheney said at the time. “He can never be trusted with power again. As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution.”
Contributing: Kinsey Crowley
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: JD Vance takes swipe at late VP Dick Cheney at RFK event
