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CNN Live Event/Special

The Funeral of Vice President Dick Cheney. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired November 20, 2025 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Through Jesus Christ, our lord. Amen.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: All right, you just saw the casket being brought in there to the National Cathedral. And the funeral ceremony is about to get under way.

Before that, we were talking about how President Trump and Vice President Vance were not invited. And we got this statement actually that the vice president made at this event with Breitbart.

And he said -- quote -- "My condolences go to Dick Cheney and his family. Obviously, there were some political disagreements there, but he was a guy who served his country. We certainly wish his family all the best in this moment of grieving."

David Chalian.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes.

I mean, I know it's odd when it's news that somebody does the right thing. But given that Donald Trump, the president, has not made any public statement about the passing of the former vice president, to hear his successor in J.D. Vance acknowledge it, pay his condolences, the absolute right thing to do.

BROWN: I also just want to note for our viewers we're talking about, when was the last time that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden were together?

They were -- they did attend the funeral of the former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman, but neither of them spoke, but they sat in the front row with Governor Walz, so just want to note that.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: I was talking to Republican -- well, I should say former Republican friend who worked in the administration who is definitely not a fan of Donald Trump who said this morning, can you believe that we, meaning never-Trumpers, got Dick Cheney in this divorce?

(LAUGHTER)

BASH: And I never thought of it that way, but it is remarkable, given that when we -- when I grew up, Dick Cheney was the most conservative of conservatives, and no one would ever think that he would leave the GOP. But just as you said that he would say that the country changed and the world changed after 9/11, he definitely argued that it was the party that changed, not him. And he's not wrong about that.

(CROSSTALK)

TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Charlie would know this better than me, but to be a conservative of the Cheney-Reagan era meant to revere the Constitution and to understand that the Constitution gives power, but also responsibility and obligations and limits power.

And Cheney was committed to that. And to see the Constitution be imperiled by the election of someone who shouldn't be in the Oval Office gave him great pain. So it it's very, very consistent for Cheney, a man of that generation of conservatives, even if it meant supporting a Democrat.

FMR. REP. CHARLIE DENT (R-PA): Well, he was very principled too.

I mean, that was the thing. Back in the day, a lot of the Republicans had a litmus test, and it was all ideologically based. And these guys had strong principles. And, today, of course, a lot of those principles have been cast aside, and it's really become more about loyalty to one individual.

And this is a problem that the party is dealing with right now, when people always were talking -- Mike Pence especially would talk about fidelity to principle. And that's where a lot of people those guys were. And that's not where we are now. We're in a very different era.

NAFTALI: I want to suggest something too, which is that we're watching the passing of the Reagan generation of conservatives, because, even though Cheney, of course, served two Bushes, Cheney was in many ways a Reaganite in many of the ways he -- when he thought about power, when he thought about the budget.

And we are seeing the departure of that generation. And that generation was committed to principle and the Constitution. And so it's a passing of not just sort of the Bush years, but this is a passing of the Bush-Reagan years that we're watching.

[11:05:07]

BROWN: Yes. The program should get under way any moment now.

I want to go to our Jeff Zeleny outside of the National Cathedral.

Jeff, has the family arrived? I know several of them are going to be speaking, giving their tributes.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Pamela, the family has just walked into the Washington National Cathedral.

Lynne Cheney, who, of course, married to former Vice President Dick Cheney for so long and very much a partner along the way, was entering the cathedral in a wheelchair. I'm told she has been walking with the use of a cane, but today using a wheelchair to be taken down the long aisle of the National Cathedral, the family also following her.

Liz Cheney, of course, will be eulogizing her father, Mary Cheney also on hand, as well as the grandchildren, who will -- many of whom will have a role in the service. So they will be joining the other mourners shortly.

They are having some family time in the narthex of the cathedral, which is the entryway basically, as they are saying prayers and a final blessing before the funeral service begins.

But so striking here, it is a different time. I'm talking with our colleague Jamie Gangel, who is seated inside the cathedral, and she is describing a scene, as we are seeing there on screen, of a bygone era, so many CIA directors from Democratic and Republican administrations, of course, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former House Speaker John Boehner, and, of course, the presidents and vice presidents, as you can see.

So this really is a moment that Washington does not have very often. But for Richard Bruce Cheney, born in Nebraska, raised in Wyoming and came to Washington, his whole life will be represented here full circle. I'm told that family members and, of course, in the eulogy by President Bush will be a kind of sprinkling anecdotes that -- throughout the long course of his life here.

But this funeral will be getting under way shortly, the family spending a bit of time, a final goodbye here before the service begins at the Washington National Cathedral -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much.

And he was talking about the fact that this is a bygone area.

BASH: Yes.

BROWN: You look at the -- those in attendance right now, this is a reflection of a bipartisan Washington of the past in many ways.

BASH: Well, and specifically the GOP -- I will just add to that. Jeff mentioned that Jamie Gangel is inside. So is CNN's John King, who just texted me: "It's like a time machine."

He said the people who once ran the world and the GOP all outcasts now.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it was bipartisan. It wasn't the most congenial.

I mean, I don't want us to talk about Dick Cheney as though he was the warm and cuddlies. And I think a lot of people got some of those images of him, the Darth Vader liberal kind of concern, because he could be very tough, right? He could be gruff with other lawmakers.

But what this symbolizes is, they all kind of knew each other. They all had worked with each other up and down the ladder. And so they were able to sit in a room together. And I can't think of anything more unifying, frankly, than death.

I'm not surprised that people aren't looking at each other and kind of having the Washington chitchat because it is solemn. It's a really profound passing of this particular figure, because he represents the kind of Washington that doesn't exist anymore.

CHALIAN: And, of course, each of these people we're looking at again because it's a rare club probably thinking about their own mortality and what their -- how their final goodbye to official Washington will take place.

BROWN: Right.

CHALIAN: Well, I mean, President Biden is going through cancer treatment, very serious cancer treatment right now.

DENT: I was going to say, one thing that's different between now and then, I had differences of opinion with George Bush and Dick Cheney on issues and I could talk to them about that and we could still be friends.

They understood the rule that you're with me most of the time, you're allowed to get -- take a pass. They're not going to beat you up. Different now with this president, where they expect 100 percent loyalty.

And -- but there was a much more mature view of things. They always knew there was going to be another vote, another day. We need to maintain relationships. And so you could still have a good relationship and friendly relationship, even though you had disagreements, like I did on stem cell research and some health issues that we dealt with.

CHALIAN: But for Liz and Dick Cheney...

DENT: Yes.

CHALIAN: ... Donald Trump crossed a fundamental line as it came to the Constitution, and there was no going back to that...

DENT: Correct. Yes.

CHALIAN: ... for them.

(CROSSTALK)

NAFTALI: I want to point out something too, which is Dick Cheney had enormous respect for his father, and his father, also named Richard, his father was a 30-year civil servant. He worked for the Soil Conservation Service.

And he had a federal pension. And so even though Dick Cheney was committed to tightening the U.S. government and cutting taxes, he would never blow up the civil service. He believed in the role of the civil service and that you could have expertise in government that was nonpartisan.

[11:10:10]

DENT: He was an institutionalist.

NAFTALI: Yes.

And that's been lost too.

BROWN: You know, you were saying they believed fundamentally that the constitutional line was crossed. Liz Cheney, Dick Cheney's daughter, will be speaking. And she essentially lost her job in Congress because of the stand that she took.

BASH: Yes, no question about it and, by all accounts, did so very much with her father's blessing and encouragement.

I mean, Dick Cheney was in the House, as we have talked about, for a while. And there was a question of whether he, at one point, wanted to be speaker of the House, which he didn't go that direction. He went in many other directions, but not that. And when Liz Cheney first got there -- Charlie Dent, you can talk about that.

Wasn't there an eye on her and a question about whether she was going to be speaker of the House?

DENT: Absolutely. I served the term with her. She was elected in 2016, same year as Donald Trump was elected.

And everybody kind of knew who Liz was, obviously. And we realized that she was on a path, that she was a player the moment she came in. Most freshmen are just trying to figure out where the bathrooms are. And there she was. She was -- had been in the State Department. She was enormously experienced on foreign policy, had a well-defined view of the world.

And so we all expected her to rise. And she did quickly. She became conference chair.

BROWN: Yes.

DENT: And then, of course, when January 6 happened, and she took the right position, the strong position, the principled position, and she was ultimately cast out for voting to certify the election and then taking a strong stand against the current president's actions.

BROWN: And she gave her dad, Dick Cheney, as our Jamie Gangel has reported, a lot of the credit, as you sort of noted too, that she said that he gave her the courage to take that stand, because so many others in the Republican Conference were not doing it.

CHALIAN: And you remember that incredible image on the one-year anniversary of January 6, where the Democrats in the House had arranged for a commemoration of law enforcement and what have you, and just Liz Cheney and her father, the former House member Dick Cheney, on the floor of the House as the only Republicans participating in that, in that commemoration one year after January 6.

NAFTALI: I didn't -- I don't -- I have met -- I was fortunate enough to meet the vice president a few times when I was at the National Archives, but their family underwent the kind of learning that occurred throughout the heartland on the issue of LGBTQ rights.

And that's something that should be mentioned too, because Dick Cheney's views of same-sex marriage changed because of his daughter, Mary. And Liz Cheney's views changed too. And many American families underwent this kind of powerful and important change in the same period.

They weren't in powerful positions, like the Cheneys, but the Cheney family's experience, grappling with understanding and ultimately embracing LGBTQ rights, was shared by a lot of Americans. And Dick Cheney stepped up, because in the end what he loved most was his daughter and her happiness, and wanted her to be able to love whom she wished.

BASH: And it was an issue during the 2004 reelection campaign, remember? And, I mean, if you think about what you would imagine the political positions to be, they were kind of flipped on their head a bit, because John Edwards was running to be the vice president of the United States on a ticket with John Kerry.

And there was a moment in that vice presidential debate with John Edwards and Dick Cheney that really, really angered not just Dick Cheney, but more importantly, Lynne Cheney. You remember that, David.

CHALIAN: I do indeed.

And put it in context. Remember, in 2004, Karl Rove, chief political strategist for the Bush/Cheney reelect, was also getting a lot of these anti-same-sex marriage ballot measures on states, especially in battleground states, to try and energize the Republican base.

And so it was a very -- you remember -- and 2004, I know it's only 22 years ago, but gay marriage was not -- I mean, it was just coming to the fore in Massachusetts. And it was a dominant political divide.

And most Democrats at that time were still opposed to same-sex marriage...

BASH: Yes.

CHALIAN: ... Democrats named Clinton or what have you.

NAFTALI: Obama.

CHALIAN: And that moment, you are -- I remember that so clearly, that Lynne Cheney, it got so under her skin. She was so unhappy with the way in which John Edwards was, as she, I think, perceived it, sort of goading Dick Cheney into a debate that was more personal for him than the policy prescription.

[11:15:02] And I -- that was definitely one of the big moments of that debate.

CORNISH: It's a moment where Cheney is almost dragged kicking and screaming into a style of politics that's coming in with Rove, with Newt Gingrich that is much more hinging on the culture wars and fighting those fights in a very visceral way than he was all that interested in.

And on top of that, it was personal. And, as you said, it's hard for people to understand now who have been raised in the era of same-sex marriage being legal how complicated and hard it was for public figures to take a real stand.

DENT: And he was very supportive of his daughter at a time when a lot of other families weren't so supportive and understanding. And so I think that really speaks well of Dick Cheney and how he handled the whole situation.

The best vice presidential debate I ever saw was between Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman in 2000. It was more of a conversation. I don't know if you remember that. But that was the most substantive debate, and it was civil. And Dick Cheney was a very civil guy. I found him to be very civil, and a guy you could actually talk to, despite the Darth Vader image.

BASH: Just looking at -- as we have the program that they're looking at there, at his resume, Richard Bruce Cheney, 46th vice president of the United States 2001 to 2009, secretary of defense 1989 to 1993, United States House of Representatives 1979 to 1989, White House chief of staff 1975 to 1977.

I mean, that's quite a resume.

BROWN: Quite the public servant.

DENT: Yes. I wouldn't have wanted to have been in the House when Dick Cheney was the whip. He was -- like I said, he would twist your arm. You better pay attention. He took the M out of the word whip.

I mean, he was a formidable figure, and I just wouldn't want to -- I wouldn't want to cross him.

BROWN: Yes. We're just listening here to the musical program as we wait for the tributes to come. We have Dr. Reiner, who will be speaking, the Honorable Pete Williams, former assistant secretary of defense for public affairs.

Many of you may remember him as the justice correspondent at NBC. And, of course, the honorable George W. Bush, who Cheney served with, the 43rd president of the United States.

Also speaking, we're expecting Cheney's grandchildren, Elizabeth Perry, Richard Perry, and Grace Perry. And the Honorable Liz Cheney is a daughter who we were just talking about, the former congresswoman from Wyoming. We're going to -- Wyoming, I should say.

We have much more special coverage of former Vice President Dick Cheney's funeral. Stay with us. We will be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:22:26]

BROWN: All right, we are back here looking inside the National Cathedral as we wait for Dick Cheney's funeral to begin any moment now.

We were told that the casket is starting to make its way through, so we will wait for that. And it's quite -- as we were talking about, quite a bipartisan crowd here in attendance for Dick Cheney's funeral, which says a lot, Tim Naftali.

NAFTALI: It does, Pamela.

And it says a lot about his years of public service. It says a lot about his commitment to the Constitution. It's also a reminder that, though, people disagreed, they respected one another in Congress and across administrations in an earlier period.

They were tough, and their elbows were sharp, but they still respected one another. And that respect is what we're seeing today in honor of Dick Cheney.

DENT: He had real detractors. But, like you said, there was a lot of respect for him. They all knew he was a player. They knew he meant what he believed in. He knew his brief. He knew it.

And so, again, he's a man you had a respect.

BROWN: Just want to take a moment here. You see the casket. It was taken from the hearse. It is now being walked down the aisle here at the National Cathedral, a very somber moment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am the Resurrection and the Life, sayeth the lord. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.

And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand with the latter day upon the earth. And, though his body be destroyed, yet shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself and mine I shall behold, and not as a stranger, for none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself, for, if we live, we live unto the lord.

[11:25:30]

And if we die, we die unto the lord. Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the lord's. Blessed are the dead who die in the lord, even so, sayeth the spirit, for they rest from their labors.

(MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning.

On behalf of Mariann Budde, the bishop of the diocese of Washington, and Sean Rowe, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, and all of us who serve our lord at this cathedral, welcome. Welcome to this house of prayer for all people.

It is indeed an honor for us to host this service today for Vice President Cheney. Thank you for being here. I know your presence means a great deal to Mrs. Cheney, and Liz, and Mary, and the entire Cheney family.

So, please, please be seated.

(MUSIC)