Former Vice President Dick Cheney has died.
Cheney who served under former President George W. Bush was 84.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Cheney passed away due to complication from pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease.
Cheney battled heart disease most of his life and even underwent a transplant in 2012.
The Wall Street Journal continues:
Having once dismissed the vice presidency as “a cruddy job,” Cheney, who served under Bush for two terms beginning in 2001, set out to make it count. Previous officeholders had gone on diplomatic missions, run task forces or even served as the president’s attack dog. But at the beginning of his tenure, when a Republican predecessor, Dan Quayle, told Cheney he should expect to attend a lot of funerals, the new vice president demurred.
“I have a different understanding with the president,” Cheney told Quayle, the Washington Post reported.
After taking office, Cheney pursued with implacable vigor his vision of sweeping presidential authority—an idea known as the unitary executive. In a notable example, Cheney maneuvered to legitimize so-called enhanced interrogation in the war on terror, which critics said amounted to torture.
The vice president maintained support for the war even as American casualties mounted and the dangerous weapons he had said existed in Iraq never materialized.
Cheney who was a vocal critic of both Obama and Trump drew ire from both Presidents following his time in office.
He was married to his wife Lynne for more than 60 years.
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