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A Pulitzer Prize winner resigned from the board of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Basis on Tuesday, protesting what he mentioned was the group’s snub of former Consultant 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 Conflict, who was additionally the chief White Home photographer for Mr. Ford, criticized the muse for its resolution 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 Instances and first reported by Politico, Mr. Kennerly wrote that Ms. Cheney, one in every of Mr. Trump’s fiercest critics within the Republican Occasion, ought to have been a consensus decide for the respect for her position 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 Structure and democratic lifestyle,” he wrote.
Mr. Kennerly, who labored for United Press Worldwide 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 muse’s govt committee to rethink her this 12 months. He famous that Ms. Cheney was a board member of the muse.
“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. “A few of you raised the specter of being attacked by the Inner Income Service and shedding the muse’s tax-exempt standing as retribution for choosing Liz for the award.”
Gleaves Whitney, the chief director of the Ford Presidential Basis, gave a distinct cause in an announcement 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.
“On the time the award was being mentioned, it was being publicly reported that Cheney was below lively consideration for a presidential run by No Labels,” Mr. Whitney mentioned, referring to a centrist political group. “Exercising its fiduciary duty, the chief committee concluded that giving the Ford medal to Cheney within the 2024 election cycle could be construed as a political assertion and thus expose the muse to the authorized threat of shedding 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 an announcement 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 may assist the electoral prospects of Mr. Trump. He added that No Labels didn’t make a suggestion 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 highest Republican on the particular Home committee that investigated the Jan. 6 assault, Ms. Cheney has frequently been vilified by Mr. Trump and his supporters. Her criticism and defiance of the previous president led to her ouster throughout the Republican main in 2022 in her Home 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 Home chief of workers for Mr. Ford and is listed on the muse’s web site as a trustee.
Mr. Kennerly accused those that rejected Ms. Cheney for the respect of pandering to Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, and mentioned that Mr. Ford, the medal’s namesake, wouldn’t have acquiesced.
“These of you who rejected Liz be 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.”
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