Dick Cheney’s funeral being held today at Washington’s National Cathedral

Former President George W. Bush, who served two terms in the White House alongside Cheney, will deliver a tribute to him at the funeral service.

In a statement following his death, Bush called Cheney a “calm and steady presence in the White House amid great national challenges.”

“I counted on him for his honest, forthright counsel, and he never failed to give his best,” Bush said. “He held to his convictions and prioritized the freedom and security of the American people.”

Liz Cheney, who will speak at the funeral, was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach President Trump after the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and she helped lead the House select committee that investigated the attack. Mr. Trump backed a primary challenger who eventually defeated Liz Cheney. 

Dick Cheney cut an ad for his daughter’s failed 2022 reelection campaign backing her position, arguing that in U.S. history “there has never been an individual that was a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.”

In 2024 he said Mr. Trump “can never be trusted with power again. As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution.” Both Liz and Dick Cheney revealed that they would cast their ballots for the Democratic presidential nominee, then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Liz Cheney also joined Harris on the campaign trail.

Richard Bruce Cheney was born in 1941 in Lincoln, Nebraska, and grew up in Wyoming. He attended Yale but dropped out after two years and finished college at the University of Wyoming. 

Cheney married his high-school sweetheart Lynne, and they had two daughters, Liz and Mary. 

He rose quickly in politics and by age 34 became White House chief of staff for President Gerald Ford, the youngest person ever to hold the job.

In 1978, he ran for Congress in Wyoming and won the first of six terms in the House. In 1989, he was chosen to be secretary of defense in the administration of President George H.W. Bush, where he oversaw the U.S. military victory in the 1991 Gulf War.

He then spent a few years in the private sector as chairman and CEO of the oil services giant Halliburton.

In 2000, Cheney agreed to lead the search for a running mate for Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush — and emerged as the top choice himself, going on to serve two terms as vice president.

Former President Bill Clinton had an unavoidable scheduling conflict and will not be able to attend the funeral, according to an aide, who said he is keeping the family in his prayers.

Clinton, a former governor of Arkansas, will be in Little Rock attending an event commemorating the 75th anniversary of the governor’s mansion with current Gov. Sarah Sanders and other former governors, including U.S. ambassador Mike Huckabee and Asa Hutchinson. 

A senior White House official says President Trump was not invited to the funeral. Mr. Trump did not issue a public statement after Cheney’s death.

On Nov. 4, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Mr. Trump was “aware” of Cheney’s death and pointed to flags flying at half-staff. Leavitt said she was not aware of any White House involvement in his funeral plans. 

Cheney had set a new tone as a powerful vice president, and on Sept. 11, 2001, and in the aftermath, that power was put to the test. 

“It’s hard to explain how important he was, actually, during those Iraq war days,” Republican strategist Kevin Sheridan told CBS News. “He was truly central to everything that America did to respond to 9/11. He’s obviously received a lot of criticism since for it.”

Bush and Cheney made national security a top priority after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and despite that the U.S. had launched a counterattack on al Qaeda and its Taliban allies in Afghanistan, Cheney warned of a larger web of U.S. enemies, urging military action against Iraq and Saddam Hussein.

“Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction,” Cheney told the Veterans of Foreign Wars in 2002.

Baghdad fell only three weeks after the U.S. invasion in 2003. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found, and American forces began a long, deadly occupation.

Former vice presidents Kamala Harris, Mike Pence, Al Gore and Dan Quayle will be attending the funeral service, according to sources directly familiar with the plans. 

Current Vice President JD Vance was not invited, according to a source familiar with the planning. 

Dick and Liz Cheney co-wrote the book “Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America,” in 2015. The pair were harshly critical of the Obama administration’s national security policies, and Dick Cheney fiercely defended some of the Bush administration’s controversial foreign policies, including use of interrogation techniques that critics condemned as torture. 

“First of all, I don’t believe we sacrificed our values,” he told “Sunday Morning” in 2015. “I think the No. 1 responsibility of senior public officials is to safeguard the nation.”

“if you are criticism-free, then you’re probably not doing your job,” he continued. 

In that interview, Liz Cheny defended his record and his unyielding nature. 

“I know of no one who has been more courageous and dedicated and honorable than my dad, in terms of being willing to say this is absolutely what we have to do, this is the right thing to do, sometimes when nobody else was willing to do it,” she said. “I know, for all of us who love you, the gratitude as Americans that we feel, is matched only by our love for him.”

Former President Joe Biden will attend the funeral, his office said. After Cheney’s death, Biden issued a statement saying, “Dick Cheney devoted his life to public service — from representing Wyoming in Congress, to serving as Secretary of Defense, and later as Vice President of the United States.”

“While we didn’t agree on much, he believed, as I do, that family is the beginning, middle, and end,” Biden said.