Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Dick Cheney Warns of Isolationism in GOP

Dick Cheney told Republican Jews that he was concerned about isolationism in the party.

“One of the things that concerns me first about the campaign” for the 2016 GOP presidential nod “is that I’m worried about what I sense to be an increasing strain of isolationism, if I can put it in those terms, in our own party,” the former vice president said at a Republican Jewish Coalition conference last weekend in Las Vegas.

Cheney remarks at a closed session were reported by Mother Jones,which obtained a recording of his speech.

In his address, Cheney did not mention by name Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who did not attend the RJC conference. But Paul, a leading contender for the 2016 spot, has been criticized by the Jewish Republicans group and other GOP hawks for advocating a pullback from U.S. engagement in some overseas arenas, including the Middle East.

“It’s not taking over, by any means, but there is without question a body of thought now that’s supported by many Republicans and some candidates that the United States can afford to turn its back on that part of the world,” Cheney said.

Cheney, a fierce critic of President Obama’s foreign policy, said he had never seen the United States in a worse position in the Middle East.

“Nobody who’s been our friend in the past any longer has any sense of trust in we’ll keep our commitments, that we’ll be there in a crisis when they need us,” he said. “On the other hand, none of our adversaries need fear us.”

Obama’s successful 2008 campaign was based in part on his distancing himself from the Iraq War and its consequences, as advanced by Cheney and President George W. Bush.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.