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Dick Cheney's Legacy
00:09:49
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unidentified
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Our free mobile app and online at C-SPAN.org. | |
| Today on C-SPAN's Ceasefire, at a moment of deep division in Washington, former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazil and former Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel come together for a bipartisan dialogue on Tuesday's election results, potential impact on the 2026 midterms, and increasing partisanship. | ||
| They join host Dasha Burns. | ||
| Ceasefire, Bridging the Divide in American Politics. | ||
| Watch Ceasefire today at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific only on C-SPAN. | ||
| Well, up next, former Vice President Mike Pence talks about religion and politics at an event in Erie, Pennsylvania. | ||
| He talks about his career in politics, his time in the White House, including the events of January 6th, and the passing of former Vice President Dick Cheney. | ||
| Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, welcome to Erie. | ||
| How did the two of you first meet? | ||
| Our kids went to school together. | ||
| In fact, it's interesting, we were just talking about this this week. | ||
| He just became a grandfather for the fifth time. | ||
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unidentified
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And now I'm really stealing your thunder. | |
| And that son and my daughter were in the exact same elementary school class. | ||
| And she's, so that son has three children under the age of four, and my daughter has three children under the age of four. | ||
| So we have that in common. | ||
| But that's how we first met as parents with kids in the same class. | ||
| And our wives worked together at the same Christian school in Northern Virginia when he was serving in Congress. | ||
| And of course, I lived there for 30 plus years. | ||
| And so we were friends that way. | ||
| And then we crossed paths professionally, but really our wives were working in the same school. | ||
| And in his first year as vice president, he gave a commencement address at Grove City College. | ||
| I did a Naval Academy on a Friday, Notre Dame on a Sunday, and Grove City on Saturday. | ||
| And when he came onto campus, his wife Karen and my wife Brenda looked at each other and they said, We made this happen. | ||
| And so that's how we know each other. | ||
| It's great. | ||
| Well, first, let me thank Jefferson Education Society and thank you all for coming tonight. | ||
| I'm very honored to be here with each one of you and to be in Erie with the incomparable Steve Sculler. | ||
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unidentified
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So let's begin. | |
| Thank you very much. | ||
| That's on his bio. | ||
| It was on his bio. | ||
| But Paul left out, when I met Paul McNulty, I was a backbench member of Congress. | ||
| I'd been elected in the year 2000, but six months after I'd arrived on Capitol Hill was that day in September we all remember in 2001. | ||
| And I remember in the immediate aftermath of that, there was a solid, steady, consistent voice representing the Bush administration and the Department of Justice as we marshaled an effort to protect our homeland and to ensure that a days like that would never happen again. | ||
| And I saw Paul McNulty virtually on television every day. | ||
| And on the weekends that we were in Washington, D.C., our kids are very small. | ||
| We moved our children to Washington, D.C. when we were first elected. | ||
| On the weekends that I was there, we would go to church at the Christian school where our wives both taught. | ||
| And I just remember sitting on the back row trying to be kind of low-key and saying, that's Paul McNulty. | ||
| And I just, Paul, I just want to commend you for your lifetime commitment to the rule of law and for 10 extraordinary years at Pennsylvania's Grove City College as president. | ||
| You did an amazing job. | ||
| That's how we met. | ||
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unidentified
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So we're going to talk a lot about faith and politics, but we have to begin with somebody who you both worked with, the passing of Dick Cheney. | |
| And Mr. Vice President, you know a lot, obviously, about the job. | ||
| What impact did he have on the Vice Presidency? | ||
| And certainly he was front and center on September 11th and the days that followed. | ||
| Well, Karen and I were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Vice President Dick Cheney. | ||
| And we're praying for Lynn and the entire Cheney family. | ||
| Dick Cheney was an American patriot who served as chief of staff to President Gerald Ford. | ||
| He served as Secretary of Defense to President George Herbert Walker Bush and then went on to serve for eight years as Vice President of the United States. | ||
| And very few Americans could be associated with having come alongside three American presidents in such consequential times. | ||
| And I believe history will remember him as a man of integrity, a man of consistent principle. | ||
| But I'll also remember him as a friend. | ||
| He wasn't what you describe as warm and cuddly. | ||
| And if memory serves, he was the first to admit it. | ||
| But I remember when I met him when I was in the Congress, I was a chairman of the House Conservative Caucus, and I was immediately drawn to the fact that he was a consistent conservative voice, even in an administration, that occasionally went in directions, particularly on spending, that House conservatives didn't agree with. | ||
| But Dick Cheney always had a way of letting us know, you're on the right track, and you have a friend in the White House. | ||
| When I became Vice President, he reached out to me, and we spent a considerable amount of time just talking about the way that he approached the job and the careful preparation that he took in that role. | ||
| And I truly do believe that his finest hour, his finest moments, were not only on 9-11, but in the days after that. | ||
| He literally dedicated his life, turned his face like Flynn against the wind, to support the men and women in the armed forces of the United States. | ||
| And I believe that the years that have passed and that our country has not endured another event like took place on our soil on 9-11 can be credited to many people, first and foremost, the men and women of our armed forces. | ||
| But I believe history will record that Vice President Dick Cheney did his part to protect our nation, and he'll always be remembered for that devotion. | ||
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unidentified
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Did he change the job? | |
| I think in some ways he did, although the vice presidency is an interesting institution. | ||
| One of my predecessors famously said a century ago that the vice presidency wasn't worth a bucket of spit. | ||
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unidentified
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You're being polite. | |
| And there's some debate whether he said spit. | ||
| But the vice presidency did change to some extent, Steve, as you've observed. | ||
| It changed to some extent in the 1970s when an outsider in President Jimmy Carter brought an experienced Democrat from Minnesota in as his vice president. | ||
| But what began as a change in the role of the vice president, I think in many ways was minted during the season of service of President George Herbert Walker Bush and then ultimately Vice President Cheney, | ||
| who it seemed like after that moment, and I hope to have been a part of continuing that tradition, that presidents were turning to individuals who would bring a council and never be a partner when the presidency and the vice presidency is not a partnership, | ||
| but to bring someone alongside that could give the presidents the very best of their advice so that the president could make a decision. | ||
| And I think Dick Cheney's tenure in a very real sense shaped the vice presidency for many years to come. | ||
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unidentified
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And a young Mike Pence in an encounter with Vice President Walter Mondale? | |
| Yes, I met Walter. | ||
| I didn't meet him. | ||
| It may help me in this room with some people. | ||
| I started in politics as a Democrat. | ||
| And there was one person applauding. | ||