David Hume Kennerly resigns from Gerald Ford basis board over refusal to honor Liz Cheney with prime award

David Hume Kennerly, a Pulitzer-prize-winning photographer who served within the Ford White Home, introduced his resignation on Tuesday from the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Basis board over its “short-sighted” rejection of former Rep. Liz Cheney for the group’s yearly award.

“In the present day I’m resigning from the Gerald R. Ford board as a trustee. If the inspiration that bears the title of Gerald R. Ford gained’t stand as much as this actual menace to our democracy, who will?” Kennerly stated in a letter to members of the chief committee.

Kennerly slammed Ford’s namesake group for its alternative to not honor Cheney, an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump, with the Gerald R. Ford Medal for Distinguished Public Service.

“A key purpose Liz’s nomination was turned down was your agita about what would possibly occur if the previous president is reelected. 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,” he wrote within the letter, which was first reported by Politico.

He continued, “The historic irony was utterly misplaced on you. Gerald Ford turned president, partially, as a result of Richard Nixon had ordered the event of an enemies checklist and demanded his underlings use the IRS towards these listed. That’s precisely what the chief committee fears will occur if there’s a second coming of Donald Trump.“

Gleaves Whitney, government director of the Ford Presidential Basis, stated in an announcement that the inspiration’s government committee, “guided by authorized counsel, concluded that it was not prudent to award the 2024 Ford medal to Liz Cheney.”

“On the time the award was being mentioned, it was being publicly reported that Cheney was beneath energetic consideration for a presidential run by No Labels,” the assertion stated, referring to the group that had dabbled with fielding a third-party ticket only to abandon the idea last week. “Exercising its fiduciary accountability, the chief committee concluded that giving the Ford medal to Cheney within the 2024 election cycle is likely to be construed as a political assertion and thus expose the Basis to the authorized threat of dropping its nonprofit standing with the IRS.”

Kennerly, who served as Ford’s chief photographer and offered an intimate glimpse into the White Home, claimed within the letter that Cheney, who additionally serves on the board of the Ford Presidential Basis, was rejected for the award 3 times, regardless of suggesting her for the consideration a number of occasions.

“After two individuals you chose as a substitute of her demurred, I weighed in once more with what I assumed was a compelling presentation to a number of the nominators the place I reiterated Liz’s deserves. Once you rejected her once more in favor of a 3rd particular person, it turned crystal clear to me that one thing else was happening.”

The previous Wyoming congresswoman has criticized Trump on a number of events. Cheney was one in all simply two Republicans on the Home choose committee investigating the January 6 rebellion and Trump’s accountability for the rebellion.

She lost her post in Home Republican management and, finally, her seat in Congress after publicly rejecting for months Trump’s lie that he gained the 2020 presidential election and voting to impeach him following the January 6, 2021, US Capitol assault.

Cheney stated in December that she is going to do “whatever I have to do” to cease the previous president from returning to the White Home.

“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,” Kennerly wrote. “America is lucky to have Liz Cheney nonetheless on the market on the entrance strains of freedom vigorously defending our Structure and democratic lifestyle.”

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