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CNN Live Event/Special

The Funeral Of Vice President Dick Cheney. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired November 20, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

(CHOIR SINGING)

ELIZABETH PERRY, DICK CHENEY'S GRANDDAUGHTER: Seven of us were blessed to be Dick Cheney's grandchildren. The only one of us not here today is our older sister, Katie, who is about to have a baby. When I was 18, my grandpa helped me pack my things in his truck and drove me eight hours from Jackson Hole to Colorado Springs for my first year of college.

Along the way, he gave me advice, warning about the potential dangers associated with your freshman year of college, reminiscing about the days when he was taking my mom to college and just talking about life in general. I will forever see him that way, driving along an open road and telling me stories about his life, while talking about the family that he loved so dearly.

[12:05:00]

I'll forever see him in his leather chair by the fire in his study in Wyoming, snow outside the windows, books piled up and his beloved dogs at his feet. I'll forever see him on horseback, riding up spencer's mountain for sunrise breakfast. I'll forever see him on the south fork of the snake, fly rod in hand, perfect cast after perfect cast.

Sometimes he even gave one of his grandchildren the coveted seat in the front of the boat. And he didn't even complain too much when more than once we hooked him with an out of control cast. I'll forever see him at Thanksgiving and Christmas in the kitchen with a towel thrown over his shoulder, cooking for us all, and we will forever be asking him, is the turkey ready yet?

The day after my grandpa died, I pulled down the huge boxes of challenge coins he kept in the top of his closet. I spent several hours looking at the coins, turning each one over in my hand to see its unique inscription. As I held each coin, I was struck by just how many places my grandpa had been and how many people he must have met along the way. But this is who grandpa was. Every person he met meant something to him, and every coin he was handed he kept forever.

Let me close with a few words prepared by our sister Katie, who could not be with us today. Dear grandpa, the mark you left on our world is remarkable, but it pales in comparison to the one you left on our family. Your unwavering love for us is a legacy we will forever hold close and will pass on to our own children one day. As we prepare to welcome your first great grandson into the world, please know that we are thinking of you. And if this baby boy grows up to become even half the man that you were, we will consider ourselves profoundly blessed, and rest assured, your great grandson will be on the water with a fly rod in his hand the moment he can stand.

[12:10:00]

RICHARD PERRY, DICK CHENEY'S GRANDSON: I am named after my grandpa, and for my whole life, he was always there for me. As Mr. Bush mentioned, one of my favorite stories of my grandpa is when he came to my kindergarten class. My teacher said that grandpa was the best show and tell since my classmate brought her cow to class. He truly loved that story.

We both played high school football. My grandpa kept the schedule of my games on his desk, and he was nearly at almost all of my games. We were both running backs. I recently read a comment from one of grandpa's coaches. He said, Dick Cheney ran with the speed of a fence post.

Grandpa might not have been blessed with great speed, but he taught me that raw determination and grit can lead you to success. He was the captain of his team, and his high school field in Casper is now named after him. Every Christmas, grandpa would cook our dinner while we hung out in the kitchen watching his favorite John Wayne movies. Year after year, we loved to do this even though we had seen these movies dozens of times.

I will always remember the hot Wyoming summer days when I was a kid. Days that my siblings and I would spend sitting together on our back porch, talking with our grandpa. He would give us important life lessons, as well as make us laugh. What I remember specifically about the time I spent with my grandpa was the way he looked at me. How he looked at each of us.

This was because when my grandpa looked at you and smiled, he didn't even have to say a word. You could just feel his love in a way, his gaze alone said, I love you more than anything. He always told us how proud he was of us, and we will always try to follow his example, to be people, driven to love our families, to be respectful and to live through the lessons he taught us, to put love and our families first. I love you, grandpa.

[12:15:00]

GRACE PERRY, DICK CHENEY'S GRANDDAUGHTER: When I was on the high school rodeo team in Jackson Wyoming, my grandpa was my driver. In his Ford F-350 pickup, he hauled me and my horses hundreds of miles to rodeos all across the state. He taught me how to have integrity, how to work hard, how to have grit, how to face adversity and how to look danger and fear right in the eye and say, is that all you got?

I'm pretty sure he's the only person who ever had the title vice president turned rodeo grandpa. And I'm blessed he was mine. After one high school rodeo in Casper, grandpa drove me to places that had been important to him growing up. He showed me the house he was raised in and told me how he and his brother Bob would shoot rabbits out on the prairie and bring them home for his mom to cook for dinner.

He showed me Hat Six Road, where his dad taught him to drive and Natrona County High School where he and my grandma graduated in 1959. For the last stop, he pulled up outside a small house on Westbridge Drive. You know what that is, Grace, he said. That's where I picked your grandma up for our very first date.

On drives to rodeos with my grandpa, he imparted important life lessons. Once we were talking about how much I like to ride bikes. In response, my grandpa said, never ride a bike down the stairs. You will not make it, and your head will go through the drywall. He seemed to be speaking from experience.

Dick Cheney was a great rodeo grandpa, because he never went anywhere unprepared. You could always count on him to have emergency blankets, flashlights, headlamps, toolkits, different kinds of knives, emergency meals, fly rods, rain gear, pens and butterscotch life savers. Since we usually stayed in the small living quarters of our horse trailer, things got pretty crowded.

At one point, the Wall Street Journal got wind that Dick Cheney had turned into a fulltime rodeo grandpa and asked to send a reporter to interview him. Few minutes before the reporter was scheduled to arrive, grandpa and I looked around the living quarters and realized there was stuff everywhere.

Grandpa, we cannot have a Wall Street Journal reporter in here. They're going to take pictures, I said. You're right. He said, let's shove everything in the bathroom. We ran around and did just that. When we were done, grandpa looked at me and said, Grace, whatever you do, do not let the reporter use the bathroom.

Long haul road trips with my grandpa were extra educational because he did not believe in the use of any navigational devices. We often took the scenic route. He always knew the history of every area we drove through and taught me to stop at all the points of interest markers along the highways.

I'll forever see my grandpa in his Stetson right before a barrel race, telling me, ride hard, go get him, Grace. No matter the result, when my run was over, he would say, great job. I'm proud of you. My grandpa had a love for the land, a love for his country, and a love for Wyoming. Any day of the week, any hour of the day, he was there to help.

He was tough with a kind heart. Dick Cheney wasn't just my grandpa. He was my best friend, my hero, my role model, and the most influential person in my life. And I know he's up in heaven right now with his beloved labs, Nelson, Davey and Jackson driving his Ford pickup and catching the biggest cutthroats and rainbows we could only ever imagine.

LIZ CHENEY, DICK CHENEY'S DAUGHTER: Following your kids to talk about your dad is not good scheduling, but distinguished guests, presidents and vice presidents, dear friends, my mom and Mary and I and our families, thank you for being here to honor the good and great man we loved so much.

A few years ago, reflecting back on nearly 40 years in public service, Dick Cheney said this. The path I had traveled was partly due to the circumstance of my birth, not that I had been born into a powerful or privileged family. I wasn't, but I was born an American, a blessing, surely among life's greatest. My dad thought deeply about what this blessing meant, about the duties it imposed.

Shortly after he became secretary of defense in 1989, he described departing from the Pentagon. As my helicopter lifted off the Pentagon helipad, I could look across the river to the great monuments of Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln, to the White House and the Capitol building, where all the great decisions that have shaped 200 years of American history were made.

And I could look directly out on Arlington National Cemetery and remember what a terrible price, thousands of brave Americans have paid so that all of us could enjoy the blessings of liberty. My dad's devotion to America was deep and substantive. He spent his life studying the history of our great Republic.

He knew you couldn't truly appreciate what it means to live in freedom, if you didn't understand the sacrifices of the generations who came before. And he made sure that his children and grandchildren understood this too. When Mary and I were little, my dad would load up our station wagon on the weekends to take us to visit Civil War battlefields with the back seat down and no need for seat belts in those days.

We would stretch out eating Krispy Kreme donuts for breakfast, while my dad drove us to places like Gettysburg, Antietam, Chancellorsville and Manassas. To be clear, even with the donuts, Mary and I were not enthusiastic participants in these outings. As you might imagine, Dick Cheney read every word of every sign at every battlefield museum and national park he ever visited.

When you're five or six years old, this is not your idea of a good time. Mary and I usually moaned and groaned about how long he was taking. And Dick Cheney ignored us, and he just kept reading the signs. He didn't lecture us or demand that we read anything, but we pretty quickly realized no one was going anywhere until he got done. And so, we figured we might as well start reading the signs, too, and what an education we got.

That was the thing about Dick Cheney. He wouldn't force his opinion on you or demand you do things his way, he might not share his opinion at all if you didn't ask. In fact, he was known to go long stretches of time without saying a single word.

But if you watched closely, if you asked questions, if you listened when he did speak. You had the experience of seeing the world opening up in front of you, of looking at things in new ways, of benefiting from his clarity of thought, his ability to crystallize what was important and what wasn't, and he was always surprising. Many know the story of his time at Yale. If my dad heard you say he flunked out, he would correct you. No, no, I was asked to leave twice. He took a break from school, and he spent several years building power line across the west.

[12:20:00]

I had heard this part of the story my whole life. But it wasn't until I worked with him on his memoirs that I learned how he spent his evenings. At the end of long days, he'd unroll his sleeping bag by a campfire or on a cot in the cook tent. And by the light of his home and lantern, he read Winston Churchill's six volume history of World War II.

By the fall of 1963, Dick Cheney was convinced, some would say, threatened, by my mother, to return to school. He had been at the University of Wyoming just a few weeks when he climbed to a seat up near the rafters of the packed field house to hear President John F. Kennedy urge the students to dedicate their lives to the service of our nation.

I think this is the moment my dad decided what direction his life should take. Though he was inspired to service by President Kennedy, Dick Cheney became a Republican. But he knew that bonds of party must always yield to the single bond we share as Americans. For him, a choice between defense of the constitution and defense of your political party was no choice at all

When he was vice president, he wrote in this letter to all of his grandchildren, as you grow, you will come to understand the sacrifices that each generation makes to preserve freedom and democracy for future generations, and you will assume the important responsibilities of citizens in our society.

I ask of you, as my grandchildren, what I ask of my daughters, that you always strive in your lives to do what is right. In the last few years, God gave me one of the greatest blessings of my life, the gift of time with my dad. We spent hours sitting by the fire at his house or mine, watching football and old movies. We went to grandkids games and matches, and we hit the road again, this time with me in the driver's seat.

Now, let me be clear, he did not like my driving, and in his defense, I had wrecked far too many of his cars over the years for him to be happy with this arrangement, but we reached an accommodation of sorts. My dad agreed to let me drive if I agreed to let him choose the music. Johnny Cash and John Denver, and yes, even the carpenters were the soundtrack of our road trips.

We went to places he'd taken us 50 years ago, to Manassas and Antietam and Mount Vernon. My dad and his Stetson, the latest copy of The Economist that day's newspapers and a book always tucked into the door pocket. We drove for hours. We talked about life and family, history and America. Sometimes my dad's yellow lab Max would jump in the back seat and come with us. Max, like every dog we ever had, loved my dad the best. To be in my dad's company was to know safety and love and laughter and kindness. There's a picture taken several years ago of him in his cowboy hat and jeans in a fleece jacket. He has his arm around one of his young grandsons, who is leaning into his warm embrace. Looking at that picture last week, my mom put it best, when she said that's what he was to all of us. He was a giant to the end, a lion of a man who loved and served this great Republic.

The night before my dad died, the sky above my parents' house filled with clouds in the shape of winged angels. I had never seen anything like it. It seemed indeed that angels and archangels and all the company of heaven had come to watch over him. As my dad left this earth, his last words were to tell my mother he loved her. And now all of us who loved him so dearly say to him, good night, sweet dad, may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

[12:25:00]

(CHOIR SINGING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please stand as you are able. The Lord be with you. Let us pray. O God whose mercies cannot be numbered. Accept our prayers on behalf of thy servant Richard, and grant him an entrance into the land of light and joy in the fellowship of thy saints through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Most miserable God whose wisdom is beyond our understanding, deal graciously with Richard's family in their grief, surround them with thy love that they may not be overwhelmed by their loss.

[12:30:00]