Dick Cheney, the powerful and controversial former vice president, was mourned Thursday by a bipartisan panoply of political stars, but bitter rival President Trump and Vice President JD Vance were reportedly not invited to the poignant memorial service at the National Cathedral.
The polarizing arch-conservative was hailed by his ex-boss, former President George W. Bush, as a loving family man of few words and a steely world leader.
“They do not come any better than Dick Cheney,” Bush said. “He was everything a president would want as his second in command.”
“This son of Wyoming went far in this world and left a fine mark.” the former president added. “We pray that somewhere up the trail, we will meet him again.”
His daughter, ex-Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming), a political powerhouse in her own right, recalled chatting around innumerable campfires with her dad, road trips with John Denver on the radio and his dragging her and her sister to Civil War battlefields when they were young girls.
She only obliquely referred to the feud with Trump.
“For him, a choice between defense of the Constitution and defense of your political party was no choice at all,” Liz Cheney said. “He was a lion of a man who served this great republic to the end.”
Dick Cheney died on Nov. 4 of pneumonia and complications from his long battle with heart disease. He was 84.
Former President Joe Biden attended, setting aside deep political differences that once led Biden to trash Dick Cheney as “the most dangerous vice president we’ve had.” Ex-veeps Kamala Harris, Al Gore, Dan Quayle also sat in the front rows in a unified show of respect for a departed fellow No. 2.
But Trump and Vice President JD Vance were notably absent, underlining Trump’s bitter feud with both Cheneys. A person familiar with the memorial service details tells the Associated Press the current commander-in-chief and veep were not invited to the event.
Others delivering tributes at Thursday’s funeral were Cheney’s longtime cardiologist, Jonathan Reiner, who joked that he made exceptions to his no-house calls rule to care for Cheney at the White House.
Former NBC News correspondent Pete Williams, who was Cheney’s spokesman at the Pentagon and a fellow Wyoming native, praised Cheney for loyally standing by him when he was outed as being gay.
The White House lowered its flags to half-staff after Cheney’s death, as the law calls for, but Trump has not issued any presidential proclamation that often accompanies the death of notable figures.
Trump feuded publicly with both Cheneys after Liz Cheney broke with him over the Jan. 6, 2001 attack on the Capitol. He branded them as neo-conservative warmongers and worse.
Liz Cheney vowed to do anything in her power to prevent Trump from returning to the White House and even campaigned alongside Harris in her unsuccessful 2024 campaign. Dick Cheney also endorsed Harris and excoriated Trump, a shocking turnaround for one of the staunchest conservative Republicans in a generation.
The elder Cheney was a legendary figure long before the clash with Trump. He became White House chief of staff to former President Gerald Ford at just 34 and later served as Secretary of Defense to President George H.W. Bush.
He was picked by the younger Bush to be his running mate after wowing the future president while overseeing the vetting process for other potential veepstakes candidates.
He was perhaps best known, and despised by opponents, for his major role pushing for the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 on the basis of faulty intelligence.
Dick Cheney stubbornly defended the extraordinary harsh tools of surveillance, detention and inquisition employed in response to the Sept. 11 terror attacks even in the face of criticism they amounted to abuse or torture.
With News Wire Services
