Latest / INSIGHT TODAY / Who is attending Dick Cheney's funeral at the National Cathedral
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: The funeral for former Vice President Dick Cheney gets underway
- 0:03Speaker 1: in just about an hour at the Washington National Cathedral.
- 0:06Speaker 1: Cheney died earlier this month at the age of eighty four.
- 0:09Speaker 1: He'll receive military honors at today's memorial service for the
- 0:12Speaker 1: bipartisan group of lawmakers and former presidents and attendance. Well,
- 0:16Speaker 1: let's bring in senior White House correspondent U Jajang, who's
- 0:19Speaker 1: joining me now from National Cathedral. Weja good to see you,
- 0:22Speaker 1: my friends. So what are we expecting from the service today?
- 0:29Speaker 2: Good morning, lad, Good morning to everybody. When mourners have
- 0:31Speaker 2: already been filing here into the National Cathedral in Washington,
- 0:37Speaker 2: d C. More than one thousand people are expected actually
- 0:40Speaker 2: to pay tribute to former Vice President Dick Cheney and
- 0:43Speaker 2: his decades of service not only as Vice president, but
- 0:47Speaker 2: in so many other roles here in the nation's capital,
- 0:52Speaker 2: from Secretary of Defense to White House Chief of Staff,
- 0:56Speaker 2: to Gerald Ford, to a congressman serving Wyoming for a
- 1:00Speaker 2: decade and so Vlad, as you can imagine, that also
- 1:04Speaker 2: brings decades long relationships. And we are seeing many people
- 1:08Speaker 2: filing in here already, including former Vice President Al Gore,
- 1:14Speaker 2: former Vice President Mike Pence. Former Vice President Kamala Harris
- 1:18Speaker 2: is expected to attend as well former House Speakers Nancy
- 1:22Speaker 2: Pelosi and John Bayner. And we also know that former
- 1:26Speaker 2: President George W. Bush will be among those delivering remarks
- 1:31Speaker 2: here to honor Cheney. Of course, he was the commander
- 1:34Speaker 2: in chief when Cheney was vice president. They served together
- 1:38Speaker 2: for two terms. And we will also hear from Cheney's daughter,
- 1:42Speaker 2: a former US Congresswoman, Liz Cheney Vlad. But in addition
- 1:46Speaker 2: to all the people we are spotting and who are
- 1:49Speaker 2: expected to attend, it's quite notable who will not be here,
- 1:53Speaker 2: and that is of course the sitting President Trump and
- 1:56Speaker 2: sitting Vice President JD. Vance. The White House tell CBS
- 2:00Speaker 2: News that they were not invited today, which is not surprising,
- 2:03Speaker 2: even though it is a typical because of the tense
- 2:08Speaker 2: relationship between Trump and Cheney. In fact, back in twenty
- 2:11Speaker 2: twenty four, Cheney voted for Vice President Harris at the
- 2:17Speaker 2: time even though he was a lifelong conservative, and he
- 2:20Speaker 2: warned that Trump was a great threat to the Republic.
- 2:24Speaker 2: And of course Trump had many words for Cheney and
- 2:27Speaker 2: especially for his daughter as well. So there will be
- 2:32Speaker 2: no representation from the main offices of the White House today, Vlad.
- 2:37Speaker 1: Yeah, And we're showing live pictures, Wuija, And I know
- 2:39Speaker 1: that as people continue to file past you, if you
- 2:43Speaker 1: see somebody that you want to grab for an interview
- 2:45Speaker 1: while we're on the air, please feel free to do so.
- 2:47Speaker 1: But we're showing live pictures right now, and can see
- 2:50Speaker 1: a former House Speaker John Bayner, as you indicated, who
- 2:53Speaker 1: has arrived at the National Cathedral. I also caught a
- 2:56Speaker 1: glimpse of former Vice President Al Gore as well. And
- 2:59Speaker 1: so who would have thought if you'd asked me, you know,
- 3:01Speaker 1: ten twelve years ago, that Dick Cheney would be the
- 3:03Speaker 1: one vice President Cheney would be the one to bring
- 3:07Speaker 1: these members of Congress, these former presidents, these former Vice
- 3:09Speaker 1: presidents together under one roof in this moment of solidarity
- 3:14Speaker 1: and in memorializing a great man. I probably wouldn't have believed.
- 3:18Speaker 2: You.
- 3:18Speaker 1: There we see the former Speaker, the former Majority Leader
- 3:22Speaker 1: Mitch McConnell also on the screen there I wouldn't have believed, Uija.
- 3:26Speaker 1: But this image that we're looking at right now, where
- 3:28Speaker 1: we see Republicans and Democrats all mingling together to memorialize
- 3:34Speaker 1: this man sort of parkens back to a time before,
- 3:38Speaker 1: you know, a decade ago, when it was more genteel.
- 3:42Speaker 1: If that could be the word that can be used
- 3:44Speaker 1: between Republicans and Democrats. We're no longer living under those in.
- 3:48Speaker 2: Those times, noved, We're not. But I think you know.
- 3:54Speaker 2: The other point that you make is that even though
- 3:58Speaker 2: Dick Cheney is known as one of the most powerful
- 4:01Speaker 2: vice presidents of all time, he was also quite a
- 4:04Speaker 2: polarizing figure even within his own party, and he was
- 4:09Speaker 2: the architect of the invasion into Iraq, the Iraq War,
- 4:13Speaker 2: the war on Terror in response to the attacks on
- 4:16Speaker 2: nine to eleven, which of course were extremely controversial for
- 4:20Speaker 2: years and years, even well after he left the White House.
- 4:26Speaker 2: In fact, you'll like this flat, I know. But as
- 4:28Speaker 2: you know, his nickname was Darth Vader because in reports
- 4:34Speaker 2: and writing about him, people often said he was the
- 4:37Speaker 2: force behind so many consequential decisions, especially as it related
- 4:42Speaker 2: to foreign policy. And I mentioned that Vlad because it's
- 4:44Speaker 2: something that Cheney himself embraced and often laughed at, especially
- 4:49Speaker 2: after he was vice president.
- 4:51Speaker 1: Yeah, there is absolutely no doubt, as you point out,
- 4:53Speaker 1: weja that former Vice President Cheney made some unpopular decisions,
- 4:58Speaker 1: some even questionable decisions when it came to American foreign policy.
- 5:03Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, as you point out,
- 5:06Speaker 1: he did leave his mark on Washington, on this country,
- 5:10Speaker 1: on the way we condump business overseas, for better or
- 5:13Speaker 1: for worse, depending on which side of the political aisle
- 5:15Speaker 1: you sit on. That isn't to either to canonize him
- 5:20Speaker 1: or to criticize him. It just is what it is,
- 5:23Speaker 1: and that he left this mark on this country. And
- 5:27Speaker 1: so that's why you see all these individuals, both Democrat, Republican, Independent,
- 5:32Speaker 1: all filing and also what we're seeing you maybe have returned,
- 5:36Speaker 1: but we're seeing them smiling, shaking hands, whispering to each other.
- 5:41Speaker 1: It is sort of a remarkable sight. I know that
- 5:44Speaker 1: you're going to be there for the entirety of this service.
- 5:48Speaker 1: We'll check in with you a little later. Hopefully you
- 5:50Speaker 1: get a chance to speak to some of those lawmakers
- 5:53Speaker 1: and some of those former executives, and maybe we'll be
- 5:56Speaker 1: able to turn that for CBS News twenty four to seven.
- 5:58Speaker 1: Thank you, my friend.