All five living former vice presidents attended the funeral of Dick Cheney, a polarizing figure in American politics. 2000 campaign rivals George W. Bush and Al Gore were also spotted talking.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney honored at funeral
Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s funeral was held at the Washington National Cathedral.
WASHINGTON – Loyal. “He’s a human lion.” “Full-time rodeo grandpa.”
On November 20, family, friends, and former colleagues paid a humane tribute to former Vice President Dick Cheney, a polarizing figure in American politics, at the National Cathedral in Washington.
Hundreds of current and former Washington leaders filled the historic building’s auditorium, including former Presidents Joe Biden and George W. Bush, all five living former vice presidents, Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell and John Thune, and political commentators like liberal commentator Rachel Maddow. President Donald Trump did not attend the funeral.
Here are some notable moments from Cheney’s funeral.
vice president reunion
All living former vice presidents were in attendance: Kamala Harris, Mike Pence, Joe Biden, Dan Quayle, and Al Gore.
As attendees filed into the ceremony, Harris was seen chatting, smiling and laughing with Quayle and Gore, who were seated side by side behind the most recent former vice president. Pence greeted Gore, Quayle and Harris as they entered and sat next to Harris.
Was there one vice president missing? Current Vice President, J.D. Vance.
Just before the funeral service began, Vance participated in a hearthside conversation with conservative news outlet Breitbart News, expressing his condolences to the Cheney family. Like Trump, Vance was not invited to Cheney’s funeral.
“We obviously had political differences, but he was a man who served his country,” Vance said. “We send our best wishes to his family at this moment of sadness.”
Memories of the 2000 election
A quick handshake, a smile, a nod.
Once political enemies, Bush and Gore met again at Cheney’s funeral.
The two men faced off in the 2000 presidential election, the closest in U.S. history, but it ended with Mr. Bush winning the White House after a Supreme Court ruling blocking a recount in Florida.
After Republicans took their seats, Mr. Bush and Mr. Gore were seen greeting each other. The two have rarely been seen together, attending the same funerals, such as Jimmy Carter’s earlier this year, and presidential inaugurations, including in 2001, when Bill Clinton and Gore passed the torch to Bush and Cheney.
Bush chose Cheney as vice president because he had never run for the White House.
Twenty-five years ago, President Bush said he made a big decision. Who will be his running mate?
In his eulogy, the former president described how he enlisted Cheney, the former White House chief of staff and secretary of defense, to lead the search during the 2000 campaign. President Bush said he is looking for a variety of standards, including mature judgment, fairness and loyalty.
But most of all, Mr. Bush said, he wants someone who will seek the presidency without being distracted by ambition.
“After weeks of these talks, I became convinced,” Mr. Bush recalled. “I realized that the best choice for vice president was the man sitting in front of me.”
Cheney was one of the few vice presidents who did not run for the White House. Spiro Agnew, who served as vice president under Richard Nixon in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, was the only one who did not run for president himself.
Cheney did not run for president in 2008 after serving two terms in the Bush administration.
President Bush said he chose Cheney because she was everything he wanted in a running mate, but he nearly voted against her during his 2004 re-election campaign.
In his 2010 memoir, “Decision Point,” President Bush wrote that he almost chose Tennessee Republican Bill Frist, then the Senate Majority Leader, as his running mate instead of Cheney. At the time, Bush and Cheney were at loggerheads over the state of the Iraq war and Bush’s refusal to pardon Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Louis “Scooter” Libby, after he was indicted on charges related to the intelligence investigation.
President Bush said during the eulogy at Cheney’s funeral that the vice president had offered to resign.
“I thought about it for a while, but after four years of watching how he treated people, how he took responsibility, how he handled pressure and withstood attacks, I came back to the conclusion that they were no better than Dick Cheney,” Bush said.
Who was sitting next to whom?
It was a bipartisan relationship, from politicians to pundits.
Maddow, who has a political show on MS NOW, was seated between former Presidential Health Advisor Anthony Fauci and former RNC Chairman Ken Melman, who held the same position during President Bush’s 2005 administration. Mellman was flanked by James Carville, a Democratic political consultant.
Photos posted on social media showed Maddow chatting with Mellman and Carville.
The wide range of characters who attended Cheney’s funeral symbolized his own politics, choosing country over party.
In a eulogy, his daughter Liz Cheney said her father was influenced by Democratic President John F. Kennedy, but became a Republican nonetheless. Still, Liz Cheney said her father “knew that the bonds of the party must always yield to the single bond we share as Americans.”
“For him, the choice between defending the Constitution and defending his political party was never an option,” she said.
