Obamas Skip Cheney’s Funeral After Michelle’s Notable Absences
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance were also not at the service.
Gotham/GC Images
Barack and Michelle Obama sat out former Vice President Dick Cheney’s funeral on Thursday.
The couple was not in the crowd of mourners at Washington National Cathedral, and a source confirmed to People that they do not plan to attend to give their condolences.
Those in attendance included former President Joe Biden, former President George W. Bush, and former Vice Presidents Kamala Harris, Mike Pence, Al Gore.
The couple was not in the crowd of mourners at Washington National Cathedral.
AFP via Getty Images
The Obamas, however, were not the only high-powered politicians who weren’t at the funeral for the second-in-command under Bush.
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance were not invited, according to a Wednesday report from Axios.
Cheney died on Nov. 3 from complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease. He was 84 years old.
Dick Cheney became a fierce critic of President Donald Trump in his latter years.
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
A rep for the Obamas did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
The couple’s absence comes after Michelle missed two other major events earlier in the year: former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral and Trump’s second inauguration.
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A person familiar with the former first lady’s schedule told Politico that she had a scheduling conflict and was at home in Hawaii instead of attending the Jan. 9 funeral.
Trump and Obama continue their extended conversation pic.twitter.com/NWZLVn5xsy
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 9, 2025
Michelle, who has been an outspoken critic of Trump, was supposed to sit next to the president, but her husband filled her spot instead. Barack made headlines when the presidential pair were spotted chatting and laughing.
Michelle’s absences have sparked concern about the state of her marriage.
It comes as the former first lady admitted that she “couldn’t stand” her husband for around 10 years of their marriage. Obama has previously railed against the perception that their marriage is “ideal” on the podcast she co-hosts with her older brother, IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson.
“I try to be honest with the world, with the people who follow me and Barack, to our girls, because, you know, people look at our marriage as the ideal,” she said on an Oct. 1 episode.
The New York Times best-selling author said that even when a relationship is “great,” it’s still “hard,” especially because the famous couple faces challenges being “in the world unobserved.”
Barack confessed in a July episode that their relationship “was touch and go for a while.”
And in a September episode, the former president delved further into their marriage troubles, saying he’s “spent over eight years now trying to dig [himself] out of a hole with Michelle.”
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