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 Warfare, who was additionally the chief White Home 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 Occasions and first reported by Politico, Mr. Kennerly wrote that Ms. Cheney, one in every of Mr. Trump’s fiercest critics within the Republican Celebration, ought to have been a consensus decide for the honour 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 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 yr and mentioned that he had urged the inspiration’s government committee to rethink her this yr. 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. “A few of you raised the specter of being attacked by the Inner Income Service and dropping the inspiration’s tax-exempt standing as retribution for choosing Liz for the award.”
Gleaves Whitney, the chief director of the Ford Presidential Basis, gave a special 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.
“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 accountability, the chief committee concluded that giving the Ford medal to Cheney within the 2024 election cycle may be 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 may assist the electoral prospects of Mr. Trump. He added that No Labels didn’t make a proposal to Ms. Cheney to look 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 often been vilified by Mr. Trump and his supporters. Her criticism and defiance of the previous president led to her ouster in the course of the Republican major 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 inspiration’s web site as a trustee.
Mr. Kennerly accused those that rejected Ms. Cheney for the honour 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.”
