Rumors grew this week that US President George W. Bush would dump Vice President Dick Cheney and replace him with a more appealing candidate to counter the surge of his Democratic rivals.
Speculation was so strong that Cheney was forced to address his future on the Republican ticket, denying that Bush intended to dump him in favor of a more popular candidate.
Bush had made it "very clear he doesn't want to break up the team," Cheney said in a CSPAN interview to be aired today. He added he could not envision a scenario in which he would leave the ticket.
Bush, for his part, stepped up his time on the campaign trail, making visits to several states this week to pitch his administration's accomplishments and defend his decision to invade Iraq.
"Although we have not found stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, we were right to go into Iraq," Bush told a crowd in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Some Republicans had reportedly raised concerns that Cheney had become a burden, especially as polls showed voters strongly favored his Democratic rival, John Edwards, for the No. 2 spot.
Democrats have criticized Cheney, saying the Iraq war has benefited the firm he used to head, Halliburton, which has won millions of dollars in contracts to rebuild the country, and for being too influential on Bush.
The latest buzz around Washington was sparked by a New York Times article on Thursday that said Cheney had fired his previous doctor, who was said to have abused prescription drugs.
A new physician could then conveniently determine that Cheney, who has suffered from four heart attacks, was not physically fit to stay on as vice president, giving Bush an opportunity to choose a new candidate.
The paper's article prompted the White House to reaffirm Bush's commitment to Cheney.
"This is a campaign season," spokesman Scott McClellan said. "There's going to be a lot of `Inside the Beltway' rumor-mongering going on, and that's all this is."
If Cheney were to leave, speculation pointed to Senator John McCain as a replacement. McCain opposed Bush for the Republican nomination in 2000 but remains widely popular with US voters.
The maverick Republican had reportedly been coveted by Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, but insisted he would not join his party's rival. Kerry eventually chose Edwards.
McCain and Cheney sought to downplay rumors during a joint campaign stop. McCain praised him as an important advisor.
Just over a week before the Democrats start their convention in Boston, Kerry and Edwards, after a brief honeymoon last week, split up on the campaign to double their efforts to reach out across the US.
"I believe in building up our great middle class, especially the millions of Hispanic Americans who are working hard and still struggling to get ahead," Edwards said at a rally in Los Angeles.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese