EGN NEWS DESK
A Pulitzer Prize winner resigned from the board of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation on Tuesday, protesting what he mentioned was the group’s snub of former Representative Liz Cheney for its highest honor out of fears that Donald J. Trump would retaliate if he returned to the presidency.
David Hume Kennerly, an acclaimed photographer for his protection of the Vietnam War, who was additionally the chief White House photographer for Mr. Ford, criticized the inspiration for its determination to bypass Ms. Cheney for the Gerald R. Ford Medal of Distinguished Public Service.
In his resignation letter, which was obtained by The New York Times and first reported by Politico, Mr. Kennerly wrote that Ms. Cheney, one in every of Mr. Trump’s fiercest critics within the Republican Party, ought to have been a consensus choose for the glory for her function within the authorities’s response to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. “America is lucky to have Liz Cheney nonetheless on the market on the entrance traces of freedom vigorously defending our Constitution and democratic lifestyle,” he wrote.
Mr. Kennerly, who labored for United Press International and had been a board member for the reason that early 2000s, nominated Ms. Cheney for the medal final 12 months and mentioned that he had urged the inspiration’s government committee to rethink her this 12 months. He famous that Ms. Cheney was a board member of the inspiration.
“A key cause Liz’s nomination was turned down was your agita about what may occur if the previous president is re-elected,” Mr. Kennerly wrote. “Some of you raised the specter of being attacked by the Internal Revenue Service and dropping the inspiration’s tax-exempt standing as retribution for choosing Liz for the award.”
Gleaves Whitney, the manager director of the Ford Presidential Foundation, gave a distinct cause in a press release about why Ms. Cheney was handed over by the group: that her identify was being bandied about for a possible third-party candidacy for president.
“At the time the award was being mentioned, it was being publicly reported that Cheney was beneath lively consideration for a presidential run by No Labels,” Mr. Whitney mentioned, referring to a centrist political group. “Exercising its fiduciary duty, the manager committee concluded that giving the Ford medal to Cheney within the 2024 election cycle is perhaps construed as a political assertion and thus expose the inspiration to the authorized danger of dropping its nonprofit standing with the I.R.S.”
No Labels final week deserted its plans to run a presidential ticket within the 2024 election after its recruitment of high-profile candidates fizzled.
No Labels’ chief strategist, Ryan Clancy, mentioned in a press release on Wednesday that the group had briefed Ms. Cheney on its 2024 poll entry technique however that she declined to be concerned out of concern it might assist the electoral prospects of Mr. Trump. He added that No Labels didn’t make a proposal to Ms. Cheney to seem on its ticket.
Ms. Cheney didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark left with a spokesman on Wednesday.
The prime Republican on the particular House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 assault, Ms. Cheney has recurrently been vilified by Mr. Trump and his supporters. Her criticism and defiance of the previous president led to her ouster through the Republican main in 2022 in her House district in Wyoming, which she represented for six years in Congress.
A spokesman for the Trump marketing campaign didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Wednesday.
Ms. Cheney’s father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, was a White House chief of employees for Mr. Ford and is listed on the inspiration’s web site as a trustee.
Mr. Kennerly accused those that rejected Ms. Cheney for the glory of pandering to Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, and mentioned that Mr. Ford, the medal’s namesake, wouldn’t have acquiesced.
“Those of you who rejected Liz be a part of many ‘good Republicans’ now aiding and abetting our forty fifth president by ignoring the real menace he presents to our nation,” Mr. Kennerly wrote, including, “Gerald Ford wouldn’t have been intimidated by phantom penalties.”
