Dick Cheney on anti-Obama Op-Ed: I didn't "intend any disrespect" to Obama

The former vice president continued to attack President Obama's foreign policy on "This Week"

Published June 22, 2014 4:50PM (EDT)

  (Associated Press/Richard Drew)
(Associated Press/Richard Drew)

Although he has accused the president of taking "America down a notch" and implying he is "a fool," former vice president Dick Cheney "didn't intend any disrespect" to President Obama, he said to Jon Karl on ABC's "This Week."

Cheney continued his self-promotional media tour on Sunday, created by a much-criticized column he co-wrote with his daughter, Liz, in the WSJ. In it, he blamed the current threat of ISIS insurgents in Iraq on President Obama and wrote, "Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many." As many journalists and politicians have pointed out, it was Cheney who was "so wrong about so much at the expense of so many" regarding the Iraq War.

"In this op-ed, you also suggest the president is 'a fool,' -- that was the word you used -- 'only a fool' would take the approach he's taking in Iraq right now," said Karl to Cheney. "It almost seems like you're accusing the president of treason here, saying he's intentionally bringing America down a notch."

"No, my reference didn't refer just to Iraq," Cheney responded. "It referred to the fact that we've left a big vacuum in the Middle East by our withdrawal from Iraq with no stay-behind agreement, by the commitment he made just a couple of weeks ago, that we're going to completely withdraw from Afghanistan with no stay-behind agreement."

Continuing to define "the scope of the problem," Cheney did not respond directly to the "treason" claim, but said that Obama "is dramatically limiting the capability of future presidents to deal with crises by virtue of the policies he's taken."

He added: "Now, I don't intend any disrespect for the president, but I fundamentally disagree with him."


By Prachi Gupta

Prachi Gupta is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on pop culture. Follow her on Twitter at @prachigu or email her at pgupta@salon.com.

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Dick Cheney Iraq War Isis President Obama Treason