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Soon: Funeral For Sen. Bob Dole At Washington National Cathedral. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired December 10, 2021 - 10:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[10:33:43]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: You're looking at live pictures, where at any moment we do expect to see the casket carrying late Senator Bob Dole arrive at the Washington National Cathedral there. That those are the steps of the cathedral. Many, including former presidents, vice presidents, current president, vice president, gathering to pay tribute to the World War II veteran injured in that war, 27-year veteran of the Senate who died Sunday at the age of 98. He had been treated for advanced lung cancer.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: President Biden remembering Dole as a, "giant of our history." I believe we can see Mrs. Dole there, Elizabeth Dole. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux with us as well, as Mrs. Dole makes her way in. Suzanne, a number of well-known names will be paying their respects today.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is a really a mosaic of people who will be inside of the church who've already gathered here and it gives us the breadth and depth of Bob Dole's life. In terms of who has gathered here, childhood friends, wounded warriors, I saw a woman in a wheelchair who got out of her car and wheeled up a ramp at the sidewalk to the church just earlier. That is the work of Bob Dole, as you know the American Disabilities Act. That was his work that enabled that woman to pay tribute to him today here at the National Cathedral.

[10:35:12]

And you are seeing the -- really the pomp, the circumstance and all of the pageantry that goes with these beautiful ceremonies here at the National Cathedral. Let's listen in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Left, halt. Center, face.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right left.

Side step, march. Turn, face. Ready, step. Forward, march. Mark time, rest, halt. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Forward, march. Mark time, rest, halt. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Center, face.

REV. MICHAEL BRUCE CURRY, PRESIDING BISHOP AND PRIMATE, THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH: The congregation may stand as you are able. With faith in Jesus Christ, we received the body of our brother Robert Joseph Dole for burial.

Let us pray with confidence to God, the Giver of life, that He will raise him to perfection in the company of saints. Deliver your servant, Bob, Sovereign Lord Christ, from all evil and set him free from every bond. That he may rest with all your saints in the eternal habitations, where with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, one God forever and ever. Amen.

REV. MARIANN EDGAR BUDDE, BISHOP, EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF WASHINGTON: Let us also pray for all who mourn, that they may cast their care on God and know the consolation of His love. Almighty God, look with pity upon the sorrows of your servants for whom we pray. Remember them Lord in mercy. Nourish them in patience. Comfort them with a sense of your goodness. Lift up your countenance upon them and give them peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[10:40:15]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Ready, step. Forward, march.

SCIUTTO: Steps of the Washington National Cathedral, the casket carrying the late Senator Robert Dole has arrived there. They're the late Senator's widow, Elizabeth Dole, former senator herself and daughter Robin behind her. We should note, escorting Senator Dole is General Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a measure of the honor, accorded to the late Senator Robert Dole.

We just saw a brief prayer and invocation on the stairs of the cathedral and there's the interior there where so many, Erica, so many lines of government, lines of the Senate, former military commanders, presidents have been laid to rest.

HILL: And today, it will be Senator Bob Dole who will be honored. See the former vice president there, Mike Pence. Suzanne Malveaux is with us. Suzanne, this funeral, this moment will also mark a lot of what we've talked about Bob Dole in the last several days and that is his push to work across the aisle, his friendships across the aisle.

MALVEAUX: That's right, Erica. I mean, and this is a very special place for Senator Bob Dole, the National Cathedral. You might recall that he and Elizabeth Dole got married here at the National Cathedral nearly 46 years ago. This is also where his running mate Gerald Ford was eulogized. And so it is a special place for someone of his stature, but also the many people inside who make up this audience.

And it is an audience of childhood friends, of wounded warriors, and of those giants, of course, that you mentioned, those presidents and pageantry, and all of those who were also a part of his life. And he made it a part of his life to reach across the aisle.

Some of the speakers you will see, we're expecting the President, President Biden and First Lady to arrive momentarily, but also who will be speaking is going to be the former President Bill Clinton. His once rival back in 1996, when he lost that election to him and famously said, when he was getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the year after that he really was hoping for a different kind of metal, the keys to the White House. And that it was the first time when he mentioned in his concession speech, he had no place to go, using that kind of typical right (ph), Bob Dole humor that he was so well known for.

But as you look and see this list of people who will be making tributes, paying tribute to him, it is a bipartisan list. It is Republican, it is Democrat, those old colleagues and former friends, Senator Pat Roberts from Kansas, who recently retired after 40 years. Bob Dole mentored him. They worked very closely together in Congress. But also Senator Tom Daschle, the former Senate Majority Leader on the Democratic side.

Daschle was one of those people that he formed a bipartisan policy group with later in life to make sure that that message was brought forth. And that was so important to him. He really said it was the least that Democrats and Republicans could do, was put their partisanship aside and to serve their country. And we saw that in his lifetime over and over as he was a champion of Social Security, of civil rights, of the voting rights and many other pieces of legislation that he worked with those liberal giants --

SCIUTTO: Yes.

MALVEAUX: -- Kennedy and Moynihan, and many of those to do the best for the country.

[10:45:00]

SCIUTTO: General Milley, who we noted, is here as well, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs who was escorting the late senator's widow and the former senator herself, Elizabeth Dole. We should note, he was the commanding general of the 10th Mountain Division. At one point in his career, notable, because Bob Dole served in the 10th Mountain Division as a second lieutenant during World War II. Of course, when he was injured horribly in 1949, it took many years for him to recover from those injuries.

As we watch there, we should note that seated -- close to the front row, former Democratic President Bill Clinton, alongside a former Republican Vice President there, of course, the most recent one, Mike Pence, assigned, Suzanne, just briefly of the bipartisan support and respect that the late Senator carried.

MALVEAUX: In addition to Vice President Pence, you also have former Vice President Cheney who is expected to be in the audience as well, really a nod to the close friendship and the legislation and many of the years that they spent together on Capitol Hill getting that type of, you know, the hard work that they wanted to get done. I had an opportunity to speak with Dole back in 2006, after Gerald Ford passed, and he said it was one of the greatest things that he and Gerald Ford wanted to accomplish, their legacy, was to work with those who they did not necessarily agree to come up with the compromises necessary for the American people.

SCIUTTO: The ceremony there about to begin inside the beautiful, the breathtaking Washington National Cathedral.

Suzanne Malveaux, thanks so much. And to all of you, please stay with us.

HILL: We are just going to take a quick break here. Ahead, our CNN special live coverage of the funeral for the late Senator Bob Dole continues. Stay with us.

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[10:51:44]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: You're looking at Washington's National Cathedral where people are gathered this hour to celebrate the truly extraordinary life of Bob Dole.

Hello, and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. And Washington says goodbye today to the stalwart of the U.S. Senate and a great American patriot. We expect to hear a very moving tribute in the coming minutes from President Biden, the President, was Dole's colleague in the Senate, where Dole spent a quarter of a century.

Plus, he was the Senate Majority Leader, the Republican vice presidential nominee in 1976. And then, the Republican presidential nominee of full two decades later back in 1996. He rose to those heights of Washington power from very, very humble beginnings in Kansas. A child of the Great Depression, a young soldier who came back from Europe with severe injuries he would battle for the rest of his life.

Bob Dole was a conservative but when willing to work across the aisle and forge compromise at very, very difficult moments. The lineup today reflects his place as a Washington dealmaker. We're about to hear major tributes from his former colleagues in the U.S. Senate, including Pat Roberts, and Tom Daschle. We'll also hear directly from Senator Dole's daughter, Robin.

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is at the Washington National Cathedral for us right now. Suzanne, it's a full house of invited guests set the scene.

MALVEAUX: Wolf, it's a beautiful mosaic of those inside. You have presidents and politicians, wounded warriors, childhood friends, and of course, family. And you will hear about Bob Dole as the war hero, as the statesman, as the deal maker, but you will also hear about him as a father as well.

One of the speakers I'd like to highlight is his daughter, his single child, Robin Dole, who will be speaking. She has always dearly valued her privacy in her private life. But she will be one of those speakers following the President and those two senators, colleagues that you had mentioned previously. And we will get a sense of what Bob Dole was like, as a father. She was just six years old when they moved here to Washington. It was early in his political career.

And she talks about some of those moving stories as a child. There were others who handed her to her father because he was not able to pick her up with his two hands because of his injury in the war. And how -- as she was young and got older, that she would button up his top button and that he taught her how to play table tennis and to drive. And that later in life, he took her to the place in Italy, where he had been wounded in World War II, took her to that special place when she was just a teenager.

And when he was a young senator, he knew that his daughter was a Beatles fan. And he had called up, made a call to the British Embassy, seeing if the Beatles could play at her high school and they said, well, no, sir. Senator, they are busy.

[10:55:02]

And so, he loved to do those special things for his daughter and she will be just one of a few who will give those type of stories and memorable occasions here today inside of the cathedral. Wolf?

BLITZER: It would be very powerful, very moving indeed. Suzanne, standby.

You know, John King, you and I spent years covering Bob Dole, we got to know him. A truly amazing, not only a politician, but a great American.

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I was looking through my office today to find this. It's an old keep saying. This is my past, I worked at the Associated Press back in the day. That was my last campaign before I switched from print to television.

And this was the Bob Dole announcement. Two words come to mind today, respect and strength. Bob Dole kept running because he often thought he didn't get the respect he deserved in the Republican Party. Hollywood, Ronald Reagan beat him in 1980. The elites, the Bushs beat him in 1988.

Bob Dole said I'm doing the work, I'm in the trenches. I'm doing the deals every day. I should get respect just for the work. I shouldn't need all that money, I shouldn't need to be an actor. And in 1996, he did win the nomination. And to him, being the head of the Republican Party, meant everything because that was the value, the respect he thought he earned and deserved.

Strength is to what Suzanne was just touching on. Wolf, this is a man who was supposed to die on that hill in Italy. And he knew that. He could not put on his own shirt, he could not tie his own tie. He understood struggle. And so quietly, the Americans for Disabilities Act, help for veterans, just quiet things that we have still never heard about to help people who struggled through life or what defined Bob Dole because he had this remarkable personal resilience.

He was in pain, just about every second of every day of his public life. He didn't want you to see it. When somebody would accidentally not know and back slap him, he lost the use of his right arm. When someone didn't know, he would turn and you would see him and he would be grimacing and shaking. And he would pull himself together as quickly as possible and turn back. Just a remarkable example of resilience and strength.

BLITZER: And the tributes are going to be amazing. We are already seeing Mike Pence, Dick Cheney, Bill Clinton, they're all there, Gloria, and so many others who have come to pay their respects. I remember an interview you did with Bob Dole in recent years that was so moving.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it was moving because I was doing a documentary on people who were almost president who made it to the final two. And what the -- what that felt like to lose in front of the world, there's nothing like it. And so I went and I met him at the law office, he was already severely disabled.

And he said, you know, it hurts. It really, really hurts. And he talked about the racist as if they were yesterday. He said, you know, Bill Clinton beat me, but he beat me fair and square. And I have been advised to go out there and be the hatchet man against Bill Clinton for the Republican Party. And he refused to do it.

And remember one other thing, he gave up his Senate seat when he ran. So, he didn't have anything to come home to, like John Kerry could go back to the Senate. So for him, was deciding what he was going to do next. And we all know that, towards the end of his life, the World War II Memorial became his big cause.

And I asked him, is that going to be your legacy? Because, of course, he's still such a legislator that we don't see anymore. He said, no, it's going to be the PS to my legacy, because my legacy is the Americans for Disabilities Act. My legacy is saving Social Security with Pat Moynihan in 1983. Those are the things I'm proud of. And this is now,

BLITZER: It's interesting, Jamie, because in contrast to what we see with a lot of politicians today, he would often say to me -- and I'm sure he said to you because you reported on him for many years, as well-- he would often say yes, I'm a conservative, yes, I'm a Republican, but I'm an American first. And I'm willing to make deals, whether with Tip O'Neill or other Democrats to get things done.

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Or Ted Kennedy, as an example. He -- we have seen, former President Bush 41, has John McCain has Colin Powell, has Bob Dole at 98. It -- we say each time that it is the end of a generation and an error. It truly is.

One thing I would like to say about Senator Dole is to talk about his sense of humor, which -- John's laughing -- which could be very funny, and very sharp. And when he lost, one thing he did after he lost that race was he started doing advertisements. He became beloved by Madison Avenue. Gloria can talk about one commercial, but I think it was just a couple of weeks after he lost, he did a commercial for Air France at Print Ad but said, well, it's not Air Force One. A classic Bob Dole.

BLITZER: He did have a great sense of humor.

[11:00:00]