In a rare moment of unity, some Republicans found themselves echoing liberal sentiments regarding the passing of former Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney, a highly contentious figure in recent American politics, passed away on Monday night at 84 due to complications related to pneumonia, and cardiac and vascular disease. Known for his significant role in directing the Iraq War following the 9/11 attacks as part of the George W. Bush administration, Cheney’s legacy remains divisive.

Throughout his tenure as vice president, Cheney faced sharp criticism from liberals, earning the infamous moniker ‘Darth Vader.’ Interestingly, in more recent times, Cheney has also drawn ire from the MAGA faction of the Republican Party. This came after he endorsed Kamala Harris over Donald Trump for the 2024 presidential race. Former Representative George Santos, who recently received a pardon and is a staunch Trump supporter, labeled Cheney a ‘war criminal’ shortly after news of his death broke.

“Dick Cheney will meet his maker and will have lots of explaining to do,” Santos commented on the platform X. “I wish his family well all things considered, but I haven’t and won’t ever shed a tear for a war criminal of his ilk.” Meanwhile, Matt Druss, a former foreign policy adviser to Bernie Sanders, criticized the late vice president for being responsible for ‘immeasurable human suffering.’

‘Dick Cheney was the author of immeasurable human suffering and an architect of American decline,’ Druss told his X followers. ‘He left our country, and our world, a crueler and more lawless place. He escaped accountability in life, he shouldn’t in death.’ Cheney rose the political ranks of Washington, DC throughout the 1970s as a political staffer in the Nixon White House. By 1989, President George HW Bush appointed him to lead the Pentagon as secretary of defense.

Under the young Bush presidency, Cheney was the most powerful operator on foreign and domestic policy, while overseeing a vast network intelligence apparatus utilizing technological tools of mass surveillance for tens of millions of Americans. Near the end of his vice presidential career, Cheney often faced allegations of being a ‘war criminal’ for his role in pushing the Iraq war. ‘The only thing sad about Dick Cheney’s death is that it did not happen inside an Iraqi prison,’ wrote journalist Alan MacLeod, a liberal journalist known for his anti-interventionist editorial stance.

Other right-wing accounts joined Santos in his criticisms of Cheney following the news of the vice president’s death. ‘Dick Cheney just died. The man who killed over a million innocent civilians to see his Halliburton stock go up,’ said popular right-wing X account Kim Dotcom. Popular conservative X account Tony Sergua added, ‘He lied about weapons of mass destruction. He is the reason so many American soldiers died or where maimed.’

‘Hell is hot. Eternity is a long time. Good riddance,’ wrote pro-MAGA X user Bad Hombre. Cheney’s family issued a statement on Tuesday morning announcing his death by noting that the former vice president died surrounded by his two daughters and longtime wife, former Second Lady Lynne Cheney. ‘His beloved wife of 61 years, Lynne, his daughters, Liz and Mary, and other family members were with him as he passed,’ the Cheney family said in a statement.

‘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.’ After the passing of a vice president, the current president typically orders the American flag to be flown at half-staff for ten days. For the passing of a former vice president, it is customary to lower the flag but not mandatory.

Trump, however, has had a very contentious relationship with the Cheney family and the decision will ultimately be left to him. The Daily Mail reached out to White House for comment on the matter. Cheney’s eldest daughter, former Rep. Liz Cheney led the impeachment effort and subsequent January 6th investigation committee, following the 2021 Capitol riot. Trump reacted by pushing for Cheney’s ouster from House GOP leadership and defeating her in a primary election by backing Cheney’s opponent.