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September Jobs Report Released; The Funeral of Vice President Dick Cheney. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired November 20, 2025 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With all with God and the hope of resurrection, and have our consummation in this and on eternal and everlasting glory, and with all thy saints who they may see the crown of life, which thou dost promise to all who share in the victory and vice on Jesus' promise, who liveth and reigneth and be in the Holy Spirit, one God, wherever and ever.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Give rest, O Christ, to thy servant with thy saints.

CONGREGATION: Where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing, but life everlasting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thou only art immortal, the creator and maker of mankind, and we are mortal, formed of the earth, and to earth shall we return, for so thou didst ordain when thou created me saying:, dust thou art unto dust shalt thou return.

All we go down to the dust, yet even at the grave we make our song, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.

CONGREGATION: Give rest, O Christ, to your servants with thy saints, where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing, but life everlasting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And to thy hands, oh merciful savior, we commend thy servant Richard.

Acknowledge, we humbly beseech thee, a shape of thine own fold, a lamb of thine own flock, a center of thine own redeeming. Receive him into the arms of thy mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light.

CONGREGATION: Amen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The lord bless you and keep you. The lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

CONGREGATION: Amen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let us go forth in the name of Christ.

CONGREGATION: Thanks be to God.

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DANA BASH, CNN HOST: And we have been watching the funeral, the celebration of life of former Vice President Dick Cheney, with a number of speakers eulogizing him, including his former boss of two terms, eight years, George W. Bush, who was characteristically poignant, but also funny.

And the thing that's really striking was how much less we heard about his huge resume and how much more we heard, Pamela, about him as a person, him as a family man, him as a grandfather. His grandchildren, the way that they spoke about him was -- you know, listening to it, it was the kind of speech that you would imagine somebody without the title vice president being described by their grandchildren.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: That was really the through line.

And when the grandkids were speaking, we were all looking at each other so touched, right, especially when Richard, one of the grandkids, talked about how he didn't need to say anything, Dick Cheney, that the way he just looked at him and that little smile made him feel so loved all the time.

And all three grandkids, you could really feel the love they had for their granddad and what a loss this is for them. And I think that is such a good point, Dana. He has had this incredible resume, but it was really about his love for family that was the through line for this ceremony.

What was your takeaway?

TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: It was a national commemoration of a man whose service to this country spanned six presidencies.

He was in four of them, starting with Nixon, but he also was in Congress for the end of the Carter administration in the Reagan years, six presidencies.

I was also struck by the poignancy of what the -- his grandchildren reminded us of, that he loved to drive. This is a man who loved to drive. I'm not going to speak about his musical tastes, but I'm glad that...

(LAUGHTER)

BASH: The Carpenters were not on my bingo card. NAFTALI: Well, and John Denver and Johnny Cash is different.

BASH: That makes more sense.

NAFTALI: But -- so this -- I think for many of us watching this, this was a reminder that a generation of Americans had to contend with the consequences of World War II, that's how Cheney grew up, the Cold War, and then 9/11.

And Cheney -- Vice President Cheney, and those remembering him today in the cathedral were all shaping our responses to these challenges. And they are now just disappearing.

BASH: Audie?

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: We also heard from the former President, George W. Bush.

And it was interesting because it was a very kind of personal eulogy, but it was also one in a way where he made sure that the public understood that Cheney being at his side was his choice, and that for all of the conversation around the control that people perceived the vice president to have, that Bush found him to be an adviser.

BASH: Let's actually play that moment, Audie, that you're talking about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Twenty-five years ago, I had a big choice to make, a big job to fill. I wanted to know all my options, so I enlisted the help of a distinguished former White House chief of staff and secretary of defense to lead my search for running mate. Dick Cheney and I went through the files name by name.

We talked over the various qualities I was looking for in a vice president, preparedness, mature judgment, rectitude, and loyalty. Above all, I wanted someone with the ability to step into the presidency without getting distracted by the ambition to seek it.

After weeks of these meetings, I began to have a thought I could not shake. I realized the best choice for the vice president was the man sitting right in front of me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Yes, their legacies are linked, right? You were talking about that earlier, that that is something that George Bush won't be able to get away from.

But, in this moment, he made it very clear that it's not something he wants to, that this is a person who was meaningful personally, as well as professionally.

[13:15:05] DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: And those qualities, preparedness, mature judgment, rectitude and loyalty, and that last one of loyalty, I think coursed through so much of the -- so many of the remembrances today.

Pete Williams talked about loyalty as a staffer at the Pentagon, where his boss, the defense secretary, didn't throw him under the bus, or when he was outed publicly that his boss, loyal to his staffer, was calling to check in on him and buck him up, loyalty -- obviously you heard from President Bush there, loyalty to his family, which we heard in Liz Cheney's remarks as well, and loyalty to the country, which was clear in everybody's remarks.

So, to me, that was sort of the through line. No matter what aspect of his life, Dick Cheney was a man loyal to his principles.

BROWN: And we should note we were all talking about how he was married to Lynne Cheney for 61 years, right?

BASH: Incredible.

BROWN: Just incredible. And, in fact, Liz Cheney talked about his final words. She said: "As my dad left this earth, his last words were to tell my mother he loved her."

Such a profound moment.

I believe we have Jeff Zeleny right outside the National Cathedral.

What's stood out to you, Jeff?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Also just the family aspect of Dick Cheney's life.

I mean, listening to his grandchildren talked about what a grandfather he was, about driving across his beloved Wyoming to rodeos, that was so striking. His close connection really offered a window to the Dick Cheney that none of us really knew here in Washington, but you could see it.

I was in Wyoming with him over the years, and you could see the joy that sort of came to him when he was there. But I think hearing the grandchildren talk about that was certainly striking, as well as this entire ceremony, for two hours, President Donald Trump's name, of course, was not spoken aloud inside the cathedral.

I would assume it was under the breath perhaps of some side conversations. But he did still hang over the service in some ways. I mean, for all the talk about this being a bygone bipartisan era, there were still so many lessons in the eulogies both from President Bush.

He said that Dick Cheney was a thinker, not a talker, like many people are in this business. But also hearing Liz Cheney saying that he was someone who put the country ahead of party I think certainly so striking. As we are watching now, the casket was just removed. The Washington National Cathedral ministers there will be giving the final blessing. The family will also be recessing out, and they will be taking their leave.

The family, actually, and as I stand and look behind, are watching this, Lynne Cheney, the wife of 61 years, sitting on the steps of the cathedral in her chair watching as her beloved Dick Cheney is taking his leave here, quite an extraordinary moment outside the Washington National Cathedral.

BROWN: I'm wondering, Charlie Dent, as someone who knew him so well, you see the casket there in the hearse, and just how profound this moment is and somber.

FMR. REP. CHARLIE DENT (R-PA): Yes, in many ways, it's obviously a life so well lived, but it's also a celebration, maybe a national celebration of a dedicated public servant, a patriot.

And I think President Bush said something rather interesting. He said that Dick Cheney's talent and restraint exceeded his ego. When you think of politicians, you think of big egos. But this is -- Cheney was the most powerful guy as vice president, but he was not ambitious to be president, like every other vice president, always trying to climb the ladder.

And he wasn't. And I think that's part of the reason why he was so effective as a vice president, because he wasn't going to the next level. Just wanted to do the job.

BROWN: We heard from Dr. Reiner too, the CNN contributor and Cheney's cardiologist, and that was really profound too, because Dick Cheney lived much longer than I think even Dr. Reiner would have thought, right?

And he had had a heart transplant. I think typically you lived 10 years. He lived several years beyond that. And he lived a full life. And he talked about what a blessing that was to his grandkids to have more time with them. And, clearly, that meant a lot to them as well, as we heard those sweet stories.

NAFTALI: I also was struck by how President Bush said that Dick Cheney didn't have an agenda.

And listening to those eulogies, I'm afraid, was reminder to me of how we are not living in a normal political moment. And Dick Cheney, for many reasons -- and we're not going to go into them -- this is a day of celebrating a life of a public servant.

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But Dick Cheney made choices that have shaped this country. Or the president he served made choices, but he pushed for those choices.

BASH: He's shaped the world.

NAFTALI: And we can debate and shall debate them forever.

But one was -- one got the sense that he was not making these arguments. Cheney wasn't, for personal gain, for the desire to win a trophy or a prize or a matter of vain glory. And that was the kind of man he was. Like his policies or not, you knew that he was making an argument because he thought it was the best for the country.

And that is an era that I believe we will return to, but it's not the era we're living in right now, I'm sorry to say.

BASH: Thank you all. Thanks for being here on this important, really historic mourning, celebrating the life of somebody who, as you said, was, if nothing else, a dedicated public servant really his entire adult life, starting at a very young age.

BROWN: Loved his family, loved his country. That was clear from today's service.

Thank you all so much for joining us for our special coverage of the funeral of former Vice President Dick Cheney.

CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts after a short break.

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

And we begin with the long awaited September jobs report which shows stronger-than-expected growth, despite unemployment inching up to the highest level in nearly four years.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Yes, the labor market adding 119,000 jobs in September, while unemployment ticked up to 4.4 percent.

Let's go to CNN's Matt Egan, who's here to crunch the numbers for us.

Matt, what does this new jobs report tell us about where the economy might be headed?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Boris and Brianna, we were hoping that this long delayed report would give us some clarity on the job market.

I think instead we mostly just got some more conflicting and mixed signals. Now, here's the good news. The U.S. economy did add 119,000 jobs during the month of September. That blows away the forecast for just 50,000 jobs. And that suggests that the job market, it was not collapsing, at least not as of the end of September. So that is a relief.

The bad news, though, is there are some more negative revisions, including August. August previously was estimated to be a small gain in jobs. Now it's a small loss. And so that means that after nearly four years of uninterrupted monthly job gains, we now have a situation where, two of the last four months, the U.S. economy actually shed jobs.

The other bad news is the unemployment rate. It went up to 4.4 percent in September. That's not high overall, but look at this trend. You can see it is starting to move higher. And that's going to get the attention of officials at the Federal Reserve.

When you look at the sectors, look, health care continues to be a major source of job strength, gaining another nearly 60,000 jobs. Construction, after losing jobs several months in a row, gained jobs in September. So that's encouraging, but disappointing, manufacturing losing another 6,000 jobs.

That continues a trend where the sector that the president is trying to prop up with very high tariffs continues to lose jobs, suggesting that those tariffs are backfiring. Also, relatedly, as imports fall because tariffs are high, we're seeing transportation and warehousing lose 25,000 jobs.

Now, I know one of the questions that everyone's wondering is, what does this mean for an interest rate cut at the next meeting in December? This report is a big deal because this is the last jobs report that the Fed is going to get before making a decision.

What's interesting is, as of yesterday, the market saw about a 30 percent chance of an interest rate cut. It has gone up to about 40 percent as we speak. So the market thinks that this may move things a little bit in the direction of an interest rate cut.

But, look, I think at the end of the day, this report kind of had something for everyone, right? There were some glimmers of hope when you look at job growth in September, but also some concerning signs with the negative revisions and the jobless rate moving higher as well.

So this just continues to paint the picture of a confusing job market -- back to you.

KEILAR: And that's why Matt is here, to clear it all up for us.

Matt Egan, thank you very much.

Ahead: some newly released photos showing the exact moment that an engine separated from a UPS plane, causing that deadly crash earlier this month in Louisville, Kentucky. We have details on the investigation.

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