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The Situation Room

Dick Cheney Dies; Election Day Arrives. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired November 04, 2025 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:02]

KEN MARTIN, CHAIRMAN, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: And, at the end of the day, like I said, no one should confuse unity with unanimity in the Democratic Party.

What do I mean by that? There's lots of different ways to be a Democrat. And this is, I think, the biggest challenge right now. We have conservative Democrats, we have centrist Democrats, we have progressives, and we have leftists. And all are important in this party.

We need different types of candidates in different places around the country to actually win. And for us to build power, we actually win through addition, not through subtraction. We win by bringing people into the conversation, not pushing people out.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: DNC Chair Ken Martin, thanks very much for coming in.

MARTIN: Thank you so much.

BLITZER: And our coverage of election night 2025 begins at 5:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN and also streaming on the CNN app.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: The next hour of THE SITUATION ROOM starts right now.

BLITZER: I want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

BROWN: Happening now: It is Election Day in America and voters are heading to the polls across the nation.

BLITZER: They're choosing everything from governors to ballot initiatives that could change the makeup of the U.S. Congress. Today's elections are widely considered to be the first big test of President Trump's new agenda and could signal what's ahead in the 2026 midterm elections.

BROWN: And, of course, CNN is tracking all of these key races with correspondents at polling places from New York to Virginia. Brian Todd is in Aldie, Virginia. That's about an hour outside of Washington.

Jason Carroll is in New York City.

So, Jason, let's get off with you first. What's going on there?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are at what has been a very busy polling place throughout the morning. We have seen a record number of early voting here in New York City, as we have been telling you about all morning.

At this particular location, Pamela, more than 16,000 early voters, that's just so far. And when we have been talking to voters -- let me get my photographer, get through there -- when we have been talking to voters, it's really come down between two things.

First is the man with fresh ideas, a fresh face, versus the man with experience who says he can not only lead a city, but take on Donald Trump.

I want to bring in one of these voters right here. We have got Ariel David.

We were talking just a little while ago, Ariel. Tell me how you voted and why?

ARIEL DAVID, NEW YORK CITY VOTER: I voted with confidence. I voted with a lot of faith in the city. I voted because it's important, because it's a very divisive election, very important election, with some very exciting candidates, and I wanted to make my voice heard for a city that's very important to me.

CARROLL: Now, you were telling me earlier that you were a reluctant Cuomo voter.

DAVID: That is correct.

CARROLL: Why reluctant?

DAVID: Reluctant because, frankly, I think Cuomo has experience, but I have a lot of reservations about him, and, frankly, I'm nervous when it comes to unknown candidates with unknown background experiences.

So my gut says to go with someone with a little more experience in the past.

CARROLL: And there's always the Trump factor here in New York City, a lot of folks talking about the two top candidates, but also talking about the president as well.

You have heard what the president has said. Are you now -- are you more confident that Cuomo would be someone to deal with the president versus Mamdani?

DAVID: It's a great question. I'm unsure. I'm unsure. I think it's a complicated question. I think that a lot of the institutions that we have, that we think are so important in this country have been politicized in very extreme ways on all sides of the aisle. So to answer that question is not easy, to think that one candidate

would be stronger than another. It's -- we're entering an unknown period and having a hard-stance belief on what's going to make a difference, I think, is a big question to answer.

CARROLL: All right, Ariel, thanks very much. Really appreciate you coming on.

DAVID: Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Thank you.

CARROLL: Thank you. Thank you very much.

And, Pamela, Wolf, one thing is very clear. We have seen an incredible turnout here in New York City, as you can imagine. So much attention on this race, so I guess it would be expected that we would see this type of turnout. Again, the polls opened at 6:00 a.m. They closed at 9:00 p.m. The folks here telling us they expect there to be lines up until the polls close -- Pamela, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Jason, thank you very much.

CNN's Danny Freeman is in Passaic County, New Jersey.

Danny, I understand there were some bomb threats reported earlier today at several polling places. What's the situation now?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Wolf. It was a very eventful morning all across the state of New Jersey, in particular because, first of all, people were voting. They were coming to the polls, but then, of course, there were these threats that were made against several polling places across several counties.

At least half-a-dozen, if not more counties received e-mail threats to certain polling places. Now, the good news is that relatively quickly, the lieutenant governor of the state was able to announce that none of those threats were credible, but we did see law enforcement officials coming out to a number of polling places just to make sure that everything was OK and to make sure that voters, of course, were safe.

[11:05:04]

The attorney general of the state saying that some polling places were able to reopen fairly quickly, but, at other polling places, voters were directed to a nearby polling location just to make sure that they, of course, were not disenfranchised by those non-credible threats.

But, Wolf, I want to talk about what we have been seeing here on the ground in Passaic, New Jersey, this county in particular is so important and so crucial to this race because it really has become a swing county. I want you to take a listen to what one voter told me. She leads a local nonprofit here.

She voted for Mikie Sherrill. Take a listen to why.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) FREEMAN: Was your vote today for Sherrill more about her plan to be governor or more about being a check against the Trump administration?

DR. JANELLE C. HALL, VOTED FOR MIKIE SHERRILL: Being a check against the Trump administration.

FREEMAN: Yes, that for you was the most important thing at this point.

HALL: That's correct, because it impacts. And I see the impact being, again, the boots on the ground and seeing the need, knowing the, need because we -- through my organization, we conduct a community needs assessment. So we hear the voices of the community and we know what the needs are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: But, I will tell you, Wolf and Pamela, this area heavily Latino. I spoke to a Latino man earlier who said that he used to be a Democrat, but now he's changed to Republican, voted for the Republican Jack Ciattarelli. That's a challenge that Democrats will have to face here in Jersey -- Wolf, Pamela.

BROWN: All right, Thanks so much, Danny.

Let's head over to Aldie, Virginia, where voters are choosing a new governor.

That's where we find our Brian Todd.

Brian, either candidate slated to make history here as the first woman to lead the state.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's a really exciting day, Pamela, because of that dynamic. We're going to get the first female governor in Virginia history, whether Abigail Spanberger or Winsome Earle-Sears wins tonight. So that's part of the -- kind of the excitement around here.

But, look, it's just -- it's just a vibrant voting electorate here in Loudoun County anyway. Loudoun County is one of the fastest growing counties in the state and one of the fastest growing in the entire country. It's the fourth largest county by a voting population in the state, and it just keeps growing.

We're going to go inside this polling place right now. Our photojournalist Manny Climaco is going to come in with me as I open the door here, take you inside the process. Voters check in here. Here's a sample ballot. Pamela talked about the history.

Either Abigail Spanberger or Winsome Earle-Sears is going to become the first female governor in Virginia's history.

Ghazala Hashmi, if she wins, she will be the first Muslim elected to statewide office as lieutenant governor in Virginia's history, so a lot of history emphasized here. Here's a sample ballot. They do it all by paper. People check in here. On Election Day, you have to vote in the precinct where you registered in Virginia.

Now, if you do early voting and obviously mail-in voting, you don't have to do that. But early voting, you don't have to go to your precinct. But on Election Day, you have got to go to the very same precinct where you registered. So they're checking that over here.

You get your paper ballots over here. And then Manny will come with me over here to the voting booths. We have a bit of a restriction. We cannot go within about four feet of the voting booths and show you kind of how people are voting. That's restricted.

But it's great that we can come into this room, because in elections past in Virginia, by the way, we were not allowed to be in rooms like this. But now we have access. And that's a great thing. You can see this process, kind of how it unfolds in real time. You do your paper balloting here and then you put it into the counter.

Now, Manny and I are going to go outside very quickly here and talk to a voter. She is a 15-year resident, Lauren Taylor, a 15-year resident of Loudoun County.

Lauren, you and I talked just a short time ago about the issues driving you to the polls. And the government shutdown is huge on people's minds. The Trump agenda in the second term is huge on people's minds, especially here in Loudoun County. That really drove you as far as your inspiration to vote, right?

LAUREN TAYLOR, VIRGINIA VOTER: Yes, absolutely. No one should have to work and not get paid for it. We should be willing to get our people back to work, back to getting paychecks so they can feed their families.

TODD: Any other issues to stand out for you that -- you're a Spanberger supporter. What about her agenda did you really like?

TAYLOR: I'm really interested in seeing how we can improve women's rights. We need to get those back reinstated.

TODD: All right. Well, thanks for talking to us, Lauren. We really appreciate it and good luck.

So, again, Lauren, kind of expressing her views on what drove her out here, but there's all sorts of issues that are driving people to the polls here. Just to give you guys a sense of the growth of Loudoun County, Judy Brown, who's the head of elections here in Loudoun County, she started her job 40 years ago, where they had 30 precincts. Now they have 107 voting precincts.

And this county just keeps growing, so the importance of Loudoun County really can't be overestimated here in Virginia -- Pamela.

BROWN: Certainly is. I remember. I was a local news reporter for many years, covered Loudoun County. And, wow, how it has grown in its importance here.

Brian, Danny, Jason, thank you all so much.

And the coverage of election night 2025 begins at 5:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN and also streaming on the CNN app. Don't forget about that.

We will be right back.

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[11:14:23]

BLITZER: Former Vice President Dick Cheney has died at the age of 84. The longtime fixture in Republican politics served in Congress, the Pentagon, and the White House. Cheney died last night surrounded by family, including his wife of 61 years, Lynne, and his two daughters, Liz and Mary.

This is a live look right now at the White House, where the flags have been lowered to half-staff. An official proclamation has not yet been released, and President Trump has not yet weighed in either.

BROWN: Here's Cheney talking back in 2015 with our Jamie Gangel about his legacy.

[11:15:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: I know you don't like to talk about legacy, but you don't ever seem worried about your public standing.

Looking back at your career, how would you like to be remembered?

DICK CHENEY, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, as somebody who didn't spend a lot of time worried about his public standing, I guess.

The fact is that I have had a wonderful career. I loved every minute of it. I have worked with some fantastic people and been able to participate in historic events.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Well, there he said it.

CNN chief political correspondent and "INSIDE POLITICS" anchor Dana Bash is here.

Dana, great to have you back here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Always good to be here.

BROWN: So let's go back earlier in his career, when he was chief of staff to President Gerald Ford. Tell us how that shaped his political career. BASH: You know, I can tell you from hearing it from him directly

because I covered the Bush White House from the end of 2002, which was the run-up to the Iraq War, until just before the midterm elections in 2006, and I had the opportunity to travel with him internationally on a couple of trips.

And during those trips, he talked to -- I mean, you remember this. He talked to reporters who were on his plane, like a lot between all of his meetings because he really wanted the press to understand what was going on inside and what the policy implications were and what the sort of context was around it.

And in those conversations, he was very up front about the fact that as chief of staff to Gerald Ford in the wake of the Nixon resignation, the whole executive branch was changed. And there was a lot of -- Congress clawed back a lot of power and he didn't like it.

And one of the things that he was intent on doing when he became vice president was taking some of the power back into the executive. And when you think about that through the lens of what's happening today with Donald Trump, a man that he did not think was fit to be president, it is interesting because Donald Trump is just doing it.

He has a very aggressive view of executive power, but it was something that really motivated Dick Cheney because of what he saw as an erosion of presidential power because of what happened with Richard Nixon.

BLITZER: And I think in contrast to what's going on now -- and I think you and I will agree, we covered him at the time -- he deeply appreciated what the journalists were doing. He believed in a free press, he respected us, and he provided answers to our questions. He didn't just run away.

BASH: Yes, well, I don't know if you had this experience. When people ask me who was the toughest person to interview, I always say Dick Cheney. He was a tough interview because he knew what he wanted to say and he didn't deviate from that, which was his job.

And so that is true, but I totally agree with you. I mean, just the fact that being on these trips, whether it was I went with him to Iraq when he was there for the first time after the war, and then on that trip we went to Afghanistan, which it's hard to imagine now. It was -- he went for the opening of the first National Assembly there.

It was the first meeting of a democratically elected government in Afghanistan. How quickly things changed. But he wanted to make sure to talk to those of us who are traveling with him at all points, so that we had a good sense of what was happening behind the scenes. It was really important to him.

BLITZER: And he certainly didn't believe that we should just report what the Pentagon put out in press releases.

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: No, no, no, but -- yes, but he also had a very strong sense... (CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: He was tough, but that was his job. But he was somebody who believed in a free press.

BASH: And he got very upset when things leaked. And I was definitely...

BLITZER: I can testify to that.

BASH: I can testify to that too.

BLITZER: Yes.

BROWN: Because you're both great reporters.

BLITZER: Dana, thank you very, very much.

BASH: Thank you.

BLITZER: An important note to all of our viewers, you can catch Dana, of course, in the next hour on "INSIDE POLITICS." That's at noon Eastern.

BROWN: Coming up, we have some new reporting on more flight delays. They're already mounting this morning as the government shutdown amplifies staffing issues at airports across the country.

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[11:23:42]

BROWN: Well, this morning, more tributes are pouring in for former Vice President Dick Cheney, who died last night at the age of 84. His family confirms in a statement that he died due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease.

And joining us now is Alberto Gonzales, who served with Cheney and the George W. Bush administration first as White House counsel then as attorney general.

Great to see you. We should note, though, your relationship with Dick Cheney goes back to your days in Texas state politics. How are you reflecting on him with his passing?

ALBERTO GONZALES, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: I think very consistent with the views of others who have been on CNN and other networks. He's a great American. There's just no question about it.

Courageous. Someone who always told you what he believed, whether you were right or wrong. I very much respected him. There are very few people that I respected more in government today than Dick Cheney.

BROWN: What do you think were the most defining moments of his career? GONZALES: All of his service quite frankly, and the positions of

responsibility that he held in our government at the highest levels are remarkable, and I think that is a true testament to the confidence that people had in the wisdom and judgment of this man during some difficult, historic times, as we -- as other speakers have spoken about, during his time in 9/11.

[11:25:20]

And working with him in the White House during that time was particularly important for me. It was an experience I will never forget. And, of course, then as attorney general he was also very influential, as far as I'm concerned.

So, as I said, I look upon Dick Cheney as someone who is unique in our history, certainly in our recent history, very unique individual who stood for principle. And I regret to say that I think that there are too few people like that today in Washington.

BROWN: You alluded to this but, of course, he wasn't without his share of controversial policies, right? Most notably, he's considered the architect of the war on terror. And as part of that, he promoted the use of enhanced interrogation techniques.

You worked with him, you helped shape the legal framework for those policies. How do you reflect on that now and just that time period working with him?

GONZALES: Well, the war on terror, the most important, the most valuable currency was information. And we needed to get information from individuals that we had in custody and Guantanamo and in other places around the world.

And so the administration turned to the lawyers under the leadership of John Ashcroft. And I worked with John and lawyers at the Department of Justice and lawyers at Defense and CIA developing the legal framework. Again, President Bush is very, very clear we were not going to engage in any kind of conduct that violated our -- any kind of legal obligations, both domestic and international.

And so the lawyers worked hard to put that framework in place. That was something supported by Dick Cheney and President Bush. And I know there's a lot of criticism about what we did, but -- and would we do things differently? Perhaps.

But the things that we did, did keep America safe. And that was always the number one objective for President Bush and for Vice President Cheney.

BROWN: Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, thank you so much -- Wolf.

GONZALES: Thanks for having me.

BLITZER: Good discussion. Thank you. Coming up: Whoever wins the Virginia governor's race today will make

history. How this election could foreshadow what happens in the next- year midterm elections.

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