A memorial service for former Vice President Dick Cheney will be held on Thursday at Washington National Cathedral, the grand setting for many a high-profile funeral in the nation’s capital over the decades, but few quite like this one.
At a time of deep partisan divisions in Washington and the country at large, an unlikely mix of Republicans and Democrats will come together to pay tribute to a former vice president who was himself polarizing during his time in power. But it may be just as revealing about this particular moment in American politics to see who does not show.
Mr. Cheney, who died earlier this month at age 84, helped shape the nation’s aggressive response to terrorism after Sept. 11, 2001, and then championed the invasion of Iraq, making him a hero to Republicans and a villain to many Democrats who thought he went too far.
But his decision late in life to join his daughter, Liz Cheney, in speaking out against President Trump left him isolated from his own party and re-examined by some of his most vocal critics.
Former President George W. Bush, who made Mr. Cheney his partner in the White House for eight years, will deliver a eulogy, while former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who assailed Mr. Cheney in a successful campaign to succeed him, will attend to honor his predecessor. So will former House Speakers John A. Boehner, a reliable Republican ally during the Bush-Cheney years, and Nancy Pelosi, a staunch Democratic adversary at the time.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, plans to come, a year after Mr. Cheney stunned many Americans by announcing that he would vote for her against Mr. Trump. Three other former vice presidents will be on hand as well: Al Gore, a Democrat, and Mike Pence and Dan Quayle, both Republicans.
Not invited was Mr. Trump, which is hardly a surprise. Vice President JD Vance was invited but has not indicated that he will attend, even though it is traditional for a sitting vice president to honor the service of someone who once held the same office. Mr. Trump ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff after Mr. Cheney’s death, as required by law, but issued no statement and has refrained from commenting publicly.
Other Trump administration officials are not expected and incumbent Republican members of Congress who still want a political future may stay away as well, out of fear of angering Mr. Trump, who considers Ms. Cheney one of his chief nemeses.
But it was not clear whether many incumbent Democratic lawmakers who still want a political future will come either, given the still-strong feelings on the political left about Mr. Cheney’s policies on Iraq, interrogation and surveillance.
Some liberals in recent days have said that they do not mourn the former vice president. Regardless of his position on the current president, they still hold Mr. Cheney responsible for death and destruction in the Middle East, the torture of detained terror suspects and the expansion of executive authority that some say led to Mr. Trump’s even more aggressive assertions of power.
In addition to Mr. Bush, Ms. Cheney will speak at the service, as will the former vice president’s grandchildren. Also scheduled to address the service are Dr. Jonathan Reiner, Mr. Cheney’s longtime cardiologist, and Pete Williams, who worked for Mr. Cheney in Congress and at the Pentagon before becoming a correspondent at NBC.
Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are not planning to attend, although both released respectful statements after Mr. Cheney’s death praising his service and patriotism.
Mr. Cheney was a towering figure of his time. At 34, he became the youngest White House chief of staff in U.S. history in the 1970s, helping President Gerald R. Ford steer the country out of the debacles of Vietnam and Watergate. Representing his home state of Wyoming as a member of the House in the 1980s, he vaulted into leadership. As defense secretary for President George H.W. Bush, he oversaw the successful prosecution of two wars, one ousting the drug-running leader of Panama and the other evicting Iraqi invaders from Kuwait.
But it was during his time as the second-in-command to the younger Mr. Bush from 2001 to 2009 that he made his most indelible mark in history. Through force of will and mastery of Washington’s curious ways, Mr. Cheney turned a second-tier office into a first-tier platform to drive policy at home and abroad.
He was often described as the real mastermind of the administration, an assertion that nettled Mr. Bush. But insiders said the puppeteer image was overblown, and noted that the two in fact drifted apart on many issues by the end of their time in office.
Mr. Cheney overcame five heart attacks and had a heart transplant before writing a book with Dr. Reiner about his medical odyssey. Unlike other Republicans who went into opposition against Mr. Trump, Mr. Cheney remained a staunch conservative through the end of his life, but viewed Mr. Trump as a betrayal of those values. He saw Mr. Trump as a buffoonish figure in a serious job and a danger to the constitutional order, particularly after his effort to overturn the 2020 election by spreading lies about vote fraud.
His daughter, who also represented Wyoming in the House, became perhaps Mr. Trump’s most prominent Republican critic after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, and helped lead the resulting House investigation. After Ms. Cheney disclosed last year that she would vote for Ms. Harris, her father followed suit.
“In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Mr. Cheney said. Citing Mr. Trump’s “lies and violence,” he said the former president could “never be trusted with power again.”
He added: “We have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution. That is why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.”
Mr. Trump fired back on social media, calling Mr. Cheney “an irrelevant RINO,” meaning Republican in Name Only. “He’s the King of Endless, Nonsensical Wars, wasting Lives and Trillions of Dollars, just like Comrade Kamala Harris,” Mr. Trump said then.
In addition to Liz Cheney, Mr. Cheney is survived by his wife, Lynne Cheney, and daughter, Mary Cheney. The family has not disclosed details about burial, but the former vice president wrote in his 2013 book with Dr. Reiner that when he came close to death in 2010, he instructed his relatives to have his body cremated and the ashes returned to Wyoming.
He did not fear death. “I was pain free and at peace,” he wrote, “and I had led a remarkable life.”
Peter Baker is the chief White House correspondent for The Times. He is covering his sixth presidency and sometimes writes analytical pieces that place presidents and their administrations in a larger context and historical framework.
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