The funeral on Thursday of former Vice President Dick Cheney at the Washington National Cathedral drew a “who’s who” guest list, but those who weren’t there were more conspicuous.
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance did not receive invitations to the service, two former officials familiar with the funeral planning told MS NOW. In fact, Vance was scheduled to appear at a Breitbart News event Thursday morning.
Cheney, the powerful Republican who served as a congressman from Wyoming, secretary of defense, White House chief of staff — and as an architect of the so-called war on terror when he served as vice president to George W. Bush — died earlier this month at the age of 84.
Trump’s vice president during his first term, Mike Pence, was among five living former vice presidents who attended the funeral on Thursday.
In an interview with MS NOW outside the Cathedral, Pence revealed how Cheney later offered him support for his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, when he refused Trump’s demands to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election as angry MAGA supporters shouted “hang Mike Pence” and disrupted the congressional certification.
“I always believe by God’s grace, we did our duty on that fateful day,” Pence said. “But when it came to Vice President Cheney, when we were here for a funeral not long ago, and he leaned over next to me and just said to me, in his usual terse manner, said, ‘you did the right thing.’”
Pence said he would “always cherish” having Cheney’s support.
Cheney broke with his party in 2024 and, along with his daughter, former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., threw his support behind Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Harris was joined at the funeral by fellow former Vice Presidents Dan Quayle, Al Gore, Mike Pence and Joe Biden.
Former President George W. Bush eulogized his friend and loyal vice president for eight years as “solid, reliable and rare.”
Bush said when he was looking for a running mate in 2000, he looked no further than the man who served as defense secretary to his late father, former President George H.W. Bush.
“I realized the best choice for the vice president was the man sitting right in front of me,” Bush, 79, said Thursday.
Former President Biden attended but the two other living former presidents, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, skipped the event.
Liz Cheney remembered her father for his “devotion to America” and for his contemplative nature. “He was known to go long stretches of time without saying a single word,” she said.
Her father famously earned the nickname Darth Vader for his brooding and hawkish persona. He even came to embrace the moniker, joking during a speech in 2007 that “Darth Vader is one of the nicer things I’ve been called recently.”
“He was a giant to the end, a lion of a man who loved and served this great Republic. Good night, sweet dad,” she said. “May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter and producer for MS NOW. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
Vaughn Hillyard is a senior White House reporter for MS NOW.