When current VP Biden heard Cheney was hitting the Sunday talk show circuit he ponied up to the bar and said, "I'm in for the fun!" Biden ate Cheney's lunch. Just when the Democrats need a reason to get motivated good ol' Cheney gives them one. Hmmm... maybe Cheney is useful after all. Whatever works to light a fire under the Dems to get things done!
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Here's a complete segment:
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Transcript excerpt:
DAVID GREGORY: Let me ask you about some of the criticism that's been leveled at this Administration by former Vice President Dick Cheney. He has argued that this Administration has failed to treat the fight against terrorists as war. He cites the decision related to Khalid Sheik Muhammad to offer him a civilian trail as one example. Giving the Christmas Day Bomber the privileges of the American criminal justice system is another example. The decision to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison. What do you say?
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Let me choose my words carefully here. Dick Cheney's a fine fellow. He's entitled to his own opinion. He's not entitled to rewrite history. He's not entitled to his own facts. The Christmas Day Bomber was treated the exact way that he suggested that the Shoe Bomber was treated. Absolutely the same way. Under the Bush Administration there were three trials in military courts. Two of those people are now walking the streets. They are free.
There were 300 trials of so-called terrorists and those who engage in terror against the United States of America who are in federal prison and have not seen the light of day. Prosecuted under the last Administration. Dick Cheney's a fine fellow, but he is not entitled to rewrite history without it being challenged. I don't know where he has been. Where was he the last four years of the last Administration?
DAVID GREGORY: What about the general proposition that the President according to former Vice President Cheney doesn't consider America to be at war and is essentially soft on terrorism? What do you say about that?
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I don't think the Vice-- the Former Vice President Dick Cheney listens. The President of the United States said in the State of the Union, "We're at war with Al Qaeda." He stated this-- and by the way, we're pursuing that war with a vigor like it's never been seen before. We've eliminated 12 of their top 20 people. We have taken out 100 of their associates. We are making, we've sent them underground. They are in fact not able to do anything remotely like they were in the past. They are on the run. I don't know where Dick Cheney has been. Look, it's one thing, again, to-- to criticize. It's another thing to sort of rewrite history. What is he talking about?
DAVID GREGORY: You have often said, when I've asked you and others, that you never impugn a man's motives. But why do you think Dick Cheney is speaking out and being so critical of the President and the Administration so publicly?
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I don't know. I-- I-- I'm not gonna guess about his motive. All I know is he's factually, substantively wrong. On the major criticisms he is asserting. Why he's insisting on that. He either is misinformed or he is misinforming. But the facts are that his assertions are not accurate.
DAVID GREGORY: You would not be this outspoken or critical when you're out of office. Is that fair to say?
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Well, I-- I-- I would hope I-- look, it's one thing to be outspoken. It's another thing to be outspoken in a way that misrepresents the facts. And I-- I guess-- again, I-- it's almost like Dick is trying to rewrite history. I can understand where the-- why that would be-- you know, an impulse. And maybe he isn't-- literally, I'm not being facetious. Maybe he's not fully informed of what's going on. I mean, the progress we have made. There has never been as much emphasis and resources brought against Al Qaeda. The success rate exceeds anything that occurred in the last Administration. And they did their best. I'm not-- I'm not impugning their effort. It's simply not true that the President of the United States is not prosecuting the war against Al Qaeda with a vigor that's never been seen before. It's real. It's deep. It's successful.
ABC News Jonathan Karl interviewed Dick Cheney on Sunday. Here are a few notable moments:
*** Cheney laughed at Biden's claim that Iraq would end up being a great success of the Obama administration.
"I guess I shouldn't be surprised by my friend Joe Biden," he laughing.
Cheney: "I'm glad he now believes Iraq is a success," Cheney said. "For them to try and take credit for what has happened in Iraq strikes me as a little strange. ... So if they are going to take credit for [Iraq's success] - fair enough - for what they've done while there are there - but it ought to go with a healthy dose of 'thank you George Bush' up front. And a recognition that some of their early recommendations with respect to prosecuting that war were just dead wrong."
*** Cheney said Biden was "dead wrong" to claim that another 9/11-style attack is unlikely.
Cheney: "I think the biggest strategic threat the United States faces today is the possibility of another 9/11 with a nuclear weapon or a biological agent of some kind. And I think Al Qaeda is out there - even as we meet - trying to do that," Cheney said to ABC's Jonathan Karl.
*** Cheney said the U.S. government should have been able to use the torture technique, waterboarding, as well as other "enhanced interrogation techniques," on the 'Christmas bomber' Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab.
Cheney: "Now, President Obama has taken them off the table. He announced when he came in last year that they would never use anything other than the U.S. Army Manual which doesn't include those techniques. I think that's a mistake," Cheney said in an exclusive interview on "This Week."
*** As usual, Cheney tries to convince people of obvious lies and that torture is a "good thing to do" like he was writing a homekeeping column for Martha Stewart Magazine. Iraq and Afghanistan Wars are the Bush-Cheney mess that Obama is trying to clean up so the weary troops can go home. They are just trying to leave those countries less a mess than when Bush and Cheney came crashing in and broke the places.
Here's a reporter roundtable discussion from ABC News:
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