Hochul orders flags lowered to half-staff in memory of Dick Cheney

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that flags on all state government buildings be flown at half-staff in honor of former Vice President Dick Cheney, who died Monday.

Flags were ordered to be flown at half-staff immediately through the day of interment, a statement said.

"I am directing flags across New York State to be lowered in honor of Dick Cheney, our former Vice President and lifelong public servant," said Hochul, a Democrat. "I extend my deepest sympathies to the Cheney family as we remember his life, leadership and patriotism."

Republican President Donald Trump has yet to comment on Cheney’s death. The White House lowered flags to half-staff in remembrance of him, but without the usual announcement or proclamation that would typically be issued after a vice president's death.

According to United States flag code, a flag should be flown at half-staff for 10 days after the day of death of a former vice president.

Years after leaving office, Cheney became a Trump target after speaking out about the president’s attempts to stay in power after his 2020 election defeat and his actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

Cheney, a Republican and lifelong conservative, also supported his daughter Mary Cheney after she came out as gay years before same-sex marriage was broadly supported, then legalized.

He said last year he was voting for Kamala Harris for president against Trump, another act that left him an outcast of the reigning GOP establishment.

Cheney, who will be remembered as one of the most powerful and polarizing vice presidents in U.S. history and a leading advocate for the invasion of Iraq, died at 84 from complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease, his family said in a statement.

Before his vice presidency, Cheney served as defense secretary from 1989 to 1993 for President George H.W. Bush and sought to aggressively slash military budgets and cut defense spending, including the end of two high-profile Grumman Corp. fighter jet programs on Long Island — a move that ultimately cost some 25,000 workers their jobs.

As vice president for President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009, Cheney surpassed the stereotype of a timid second-in-command while aiming to one day be president. During his time as vice president, he used a network of back channels to influence policy on Iraq, terrorism, presidential powers, energy and other conservative cornerstones.