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Dick Cheney, the former vice president of the United States, has died at the age of 84, according to a statement from his family. A giant of the Republican Party, he previously served as the former White House chief of staff and secretary of defense.The US congressman was part of the Republican administration of former US President George W Bush. While Dick Cheney was recognized as the most powerful modern vice president and chief architect of the “war on terror,” he is also remembered for the dramatic hunting accident which unfolded in 2006.According to the BBC, during a quail hunting trip on a Texas ranch on February 11, 2006, Cheney accidentally sprayed his companion, Harry Whittington, a prominent Texas lawyer, with shotgun pellets while trying to hit the birds.Harry Whittington was reportedly rushed to the hospital with several birdshot wounds after the shooting. He was placed in the intensive care unit, as he suffered a collapsed lung as well as a mild heart attack. The shooting was reportedly deemed an accident.While Whittington was shot in the face, neck, and torso, he later apologized to Dick Cheney and his family. As per The Guardian, the Texas lawyer, who died in 2023 at the age of 95, said in his apology:“My family and I are deeply sorry for all that vice-president Cheney and his family have had to go through this past week.”Meanwhile, days after the incident, the former vice president took the blame for the shooting incident. During an interview with Fox News, he said:“It’s not Harry's fault. Ultimately, I’m the guy that pulled the trigger and shot my friend.”For the unversed, Whittington, who made international headlines after George W Bush’s vice president shot him, was also reportedly an avid supporter of the Republican Party. He had helped build the GOP of Texas on a national level. He also worked for George W Bush and George HW Bush during their years in Texas politics.Dick Cheney once called Donald Trump a “coward”Former Vice President Dick Cheney (Image via Getty)Despite being in the same party, Dick Cheney once called Donald Trump a “coward”. According to CNN, during his appearance in an advert for his daughter's political campaign in 2022, the former vice president became a vocal critic of U.S. President, saying:“In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.”The influential Republican figure further said of the current US President:“He is a coward. A real man wouldn’t lie to his supporters. He lost his election, and he lost big. I know it. He knows it, and deep down, I think most Republicans know.”Meanwhile, after his passing, Dick Cheney’s family said in a statement that he died due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease. According to CNN, the statement read:“His beloved wife of 61 years, Lynne, his daughters, Liz and Mary, and other family members were with him as he passed… Dick Cheney was a great and good man who taught his children and grandchildren to love our country, and to live lives of courage, honor, love, kindness, and fly fishing.”The family added:“We are grateful beyond measure for all Dick Cheney did for our country. And we are blessed beyond measure to have loved and been loved by this noble giant of a man.”Notably, Cheney has reportedly lived with chronic heart disease for all of his adult life. The politician suffered his first heart attack at age 37, while he was campaigning for Congress in 1978. While it was the first of five, he also suffered subsequent heart attacks in 1984, 1988, 2000 and 2010.Cheney also reportedly underwent an open-heart surgery and had a pacemaker implanted. He then got a heart transplant at age 71.
