The political rehabilitation of Dick Cheney – courtesy of Donald Trump

Once they called him Darth Vader. Now Democrats are lining up for selfies with the former vice president, writes Andrew Buncombe

Wednesday 02 February 2022 00:01 GMT
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<p>Cheney was one of only two Republicans to attend the memorial </p>

Cheney was one of only two Republicans to attend the memorial

It really was quite a scene. As Democrats gathered on Capitol Hill to mark the anniversary of the 6 January attacks, there was a crush of bodies created by the presence of a man in a dark suit. Some were content to snap a photograph. Others were determined to shake his hand, as if some of that hard-earned West Wing experience might rub off on them.

One might have assumed the cause of such excitement was a Democratic heavyweight such as Barack Obama, Bill Clinton or even perhaps the 97-year-old Jimmy Carter, physically frail but still mentally and morally coherent. It was none of them. Rather, it was former vice-president Dick Cheney, long a target of loathing and outrage for Democrats who saw him in the tip of the spear of America’s long and dark “war on terror” in the aftermath of 9/11.

It was he who helped concoct “evidence” that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons off mass destruction, who pushed for the invasion of Iraq and then defended the US’s use of torture, of rendition and the establishment of secret “black sites” where suspects could be interrogated, sometimes for years, away from prying eyes. People once called him Darth Vader. Now they wanted a selfie.

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