Vice President Kamala Harris’ senior campaign spokesperson, Ian Sams, remained silent when pressed on whether he still believes in his previous sharp critiques of Harris campaign surrogate, Liz Cheney, who Sams described in 2013 as a “warlord” and blamed in 2019 for “lead[ing] us into Iraq.”
“Liz Cheney helped lead us into Iraq from a special State Department Middle East post her dad’s administration created for her,” Sams criticized Cheney on Twitter, now X, in 2019.
“Liz Cheney brings the crazy today,” he said in a separate 2013 social media post, which linked to a Wall Street Journal op-ed that Cheney wrote at the time. Meanwhile, that same year, Sams shared an article from Salon.com, which referred to Cheney as an “aspiring warlord.”
Fox News Digital uncovered several social media posts by Sams critiquing Cheney, who, in more recent days, has praised the former GOP Wyoming congresswoman following her endorsement of his boss.
Just over the weekend, Sams touted the fact that Cheney would be stumping for Harris in the battleground state of Wisconsin. A few days before that, he was defending Cheney from attacks by former President Donald Trump.
Ian Sams, former White House counsel-turned-senior Harris campaign staffer, speaks to members of the media outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, D.C., on March 12, 2024. (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
“Congresswoman Cheney is a patriot,” Sams told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell last month. “I think, in the last five years, we’ve seen over-and-over again, her put country over party. Or as John McCain would say, ‘To put country first.'”
Sams added during the interview that he thinks Harris “really respects … true conservatives,” like Cheney.
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Besides praising the congresswoman and her endorsement of Harris, Sams has also highlighted the fact that Harris was endorsed by a large cohort of former President George W. Bush officials, including those who worked on national security. It was Bush’s administration that invaded Iraq in 2003.
Ian Sams, former White House counsel to President Biden-turned-senior Harris campaign spokesperson, returned to the White House after speaking to the media on March 12, 2024 in Washington, D.C. ((Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images))
Fox News Digital reached out to Cheney for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
“A broken clock is right twice a day, and a Kamala Harris spokesman is right once in his life,” the Trump campaign said in a statement Monday, highlighting Sams’ 2019 post about Cheney “lead[ing] us into Iraq from a special State Department Middle East post” that he claimed Cheney’s father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, created for her.
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However, despite Sams’ claim that Cheney’s father “created” a state department position exclusively for her, the position existed before she was ever hired.
“Ian Sams wrote the truth about Kamala Harris’ surrogate (and likely future Defense Secretary),” the Trump campaign statement concluded.