Cheney has suffered five heart attacks since the age of 37. Cheney feared heart-device hack

Dick Cheney’s heart problems are well known.

What isn’t widely known is that the former vice president had the wireless feature of his implanted defibrillator disabled so nobody could attempt to assassinate him by hacking into the device.


During a “60 Minutes” interview with Dr. Sanjay Gupta scheduled to air on CBS this Sunday, Cheney said his cardiologist feared a terrorist could send a signal to the device to make him go into cardiac arrest.

“And it seemed to me to be a bad idea for the vice president to have a device that maybe somebody on a rope line or in the next hotel room or downstairs might be able to get into— hack into,” Dr. Jonathan Reiner said, according to the show’s transcript. “And I worried that someone could kill you.”

( Also on POLITICO: Anatomy of a shutdown)

During the interview Cheney reveals that he watched an episode of Showtime’s “Homeland” last year in which a terrorist kills the vice president by sending a fatal signal to his cardiac implant.

“Because I know from the experience we had and the necessity for adjusting my own device that it was an accurate portrayal of what was possible,” the former vice president said.

Cheney, 72, underwent a successful heart transplant in March 2012 and has suffered five heart attacks since the age of 37, most recently in 2010.

( Also on POLITICO: Bill Young, longest-serving House Republican, dies)

When asked whether his physical condition affected important decisions on Afghanistan, Iraq and surveillance programs, the vice president demurred. He also said he wasn’t worried about studies that show a connection between severe heart disease and memory loss.

“You know, I was as good as I could be, you know, given the fact I was sixty-some years old at that point and a heart patient,” he said.

Mike Allen contributed to this report.

This article tagged under: Dick Cheney