Senate Republicans downplay Dick Cheney's endorsement of Kamala Harris: 'just one person'

Several Republican senators on Monday downplayed the significance and impact of former Vice President Dick Cheney's endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donald Trump. 

Cheney, and his daughter, former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, publicly endorsed Harris last week. The former vice president claimed there was no "greater threat" to the country than Trump, and urged voters to put "country above partisanship" and support Harris. 

Iowa GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley told CNN that Cheney is "just one person" and that the "millions and millions of votes that Trump got in the primary to be our nominee” were more important than a single person.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who is running to replace Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as Republican leader in November, echoed that he believes the endorsement will "not have much impact one way or the other."

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, who is running for Senate GOP Whip in November and represents Cheney's home state, said he was not surprised by the endorsement because of Liz Cheney's known distaste of the former president. He also claimed Cheney was "out of touch" with Wyoming voters.

“He’s clearly not thinking about Wyoming anymore. It’s no longer part of his life," Barrasso said. "President Trump is really, really good for Wyoming and he’s just out of touch with people of his home state.”

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis raised concerns about the national security implications of a Harris presidency, and said that he was not sure why Cheney would think Harris was a better choice given the current global conflicts.

"I look at the world today, I look at Ukraine, I look at Israel, [and] from a national security perspective it’s hard for me to understand why somebody with [his] depth of experience in national security went that way," Tillis noted. "But people get to endorse who they want to endorse.”

Cheney, who was vice president for former President George W. Bush, previously served as the Secretary of Defense for Bush's father, former President George H.W. Bush from 1989 to 1993.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.