Gerald Ford’s White House photographer resigned from the board of the 38th president’s eponymous foundation and alleged it refused to honor Liz Cheney, the anti-Trump former Republican congresswoman, for fear of reprisal should Donald Trump return to power next year.
The honor in question was the Gerald R Ford Medal for Distinguished Public Service. Recent recipients include the former defense secretary Robert Gates; the late Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole and his wife, the former senator Elizabeth Dole; and the late secretary of state Colin Powell.
“A key reason Liz’s nomination was turned down was your agita about what might happen if the former president is re-elected,” David Kennerly, 77 and a Pulitzer-winning photographer, told the executive committee and board members of the Gerald R Ford Presidential Foundation in a letter reported by Politico.
“Some of you raised the spectre of being attacked by the Internal Revenue Service and losing the foundation’s tax-exempt status as retribution for selecting Liz for the award.
“The historical irony was completely lost on you. Gerald Ford became president [in 1974], in part, because Richard Nixon had ordered the development of an enemies list and demanded his underlings use the IRS against those listed. That’s exactly what the executive committee fears will happen if there’s a second coming of Donald Trump.”
Gleaves Whitney, executive director of the foundation, told Politico legal advisers said it would not be “prudent” to honor Cheney because of her flirtation with a presidential run, as to do so “might be construed as a political statement and thus expose the foundation to the legal risk of losing its non-profit status with the IRS”.
Cheney, from Wyoming, is the daughter of Dick Cheney, the former Republican congressman, defense secretary and vice-president who was also Ford’s White House chief of staff and campaign manager.
A stringent conservative who supported Trump as president, Liz Cheney turned against him when he refused to accept defeat by Joe Biden, ultimately stoking the deadly attack on Congress of 6 January 2021.
Cheney was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump over the attack and, with Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, one of two Republicans on the House January 6 committee that recommended Trump face criminal charges.
Cheney lost her seat to a Trump-backed challenger but maintained a high profile as Trump cruised to the Republican presidential nomination despite facing 88 criminal charges (14 over election subversion, 34 over hush-money payments, 40 over retention of classified information) and multimillion-dollar civil penalties for tax fraud and defamation arising from a rape allegation a judge called “substantially true”.
Cheney has considered but not mounted a presidential run. Last month, she announced the formation of a political action committee to support anti-Trump candidates. Trump has attacked her relentlessly, including calling for her to be jailed.
In his letter protesting against the decision not to honour Cheney, Kennerly said Gerald Ford “led by example and placed his life on the line to do it”, from wartime naval service to a “short but impactful” presidency in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal and a long post-presidency before his death, at 93, in 2006.
Kennerly also cited Ford’s receipt in 2001 of a Profile in Courage award from the JFK Foundation, for his “controversial decision of conscience” to give Nixon a pardon. In 2022, Cheney was one of five recipients of the same Kennedy award, alongside Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, and for “defending democracy at home and abroad”.
Kennerly said he saw “no other choice” than to give Cheney the Ford medal, and described making a “compelling presentation” to nominators seeming to waver.
“When you rejected her again in favor of a third person,” he wrote, “it became crystal clear to me that something else was going on. The process for honoring President Ford by recognising his virtues in others was being undermined by the same pressures weakening Republican institutions and many conservative leaders.”
Kennerly accused the foundation of “the kind of acquiescent behaviour that leads to authoritarianism”, adding: “President Ford most likely would have come out even tougher and said that it leads directly to fascism.
“Those of you who rejected Liz join many ‘good Republicans’ now aiding and abetting our 45th president [Trump] by ignoring the genuine menace he presents to our country. America is fortunate to have Liz Cheney still out there on the frontlines of freedom vigorously defending our constitution and democratic way of life. But you don’t have her back.”
The foundation, Kennerly said, had “missed a critical opportunity to send a message to our fellow citizens here in America and the rest of the world. When Ford was in office people still recall his commitment to our allies, the rule of law, and meeting the challenge posed by tyrannical leaders. By saying that we stand with Liz Cheney in the name of Gerald Ford to support her critical mission in this existential moment we also would have honored his memory. And shown that we fear no evil.
“After this current divisive era passes, people will remember who stood up for what.”
Kennerly told Politico the letter “did not make me happy writing it”. Whitney said foundation trustees were meeting to discuss the matter. Cheney did not comment.
