Cheney: No worse burden to leave the next president than what Obama is creating.
Vice President Dick Cheney delivered his harshest criticism of President Barack Obama in an interview Wednesday, April 8, 2015 with radio host Hugh Hewitt.
Hewitt asked the former vice president, “Is he naïve, Mr. Vice President? Or does he have a far-reaching vision that only he entertains of a realigned Middle East that somehow it all works out in the end?”
“I vacillate between the various theories I’ve heard,” Cheney admitted. “But you know, if you had somebody as president who wanted to take America down, who wanted to fundamentally weaken our position in the world and reduce our capacity to influence events, turn our back on our allies, and encourage our adversaries, it would look exactly like what Barack Obama is doing.”
— Dick Cheney
Obama : Any president who gets elected will be knowledgeable enough about foreign policy and knowledgeable enough about the traditions and precedents of presidential power that they won’t start calling into question the capacity of the executive branch of the United States to enter into agreements with other countries. If that starts being questioned, that’s going to be a problem for our friends, and that’s going to embolden our enemies. And it would be a foolish approach to take, and you know, perhaps Mr. Walker, after he’s taken some time to bone up on foreign policy, will feel the same way.
Hewitt: Vice President Cheney, you’ve been boning up on foreign policy since you entered the House 30 years ago. What do you make of that statement?
Cheney: Well, it starts from a flawed presumption on Obama’s part. For most of the last 70 years since World War II, we’ve had a bipartisan accord in this country between Democrat and Republican, Harry Truman, Jack Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Ronald Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower, the Bushes, believed that America had to play a leading role in the world, that we needed to maintain a first class military capability to do that, and occasionally use it, that the world works best with U.S. leadership. The first president, really, who doesn’t, no longer believes that fundamental truth, is Barack Obama. And what he’s saying in his criticism of Governor Walker I think probably Governor Walker welcomes. It’s almost like a paid commercial. I heard today that as soon as the statement came out from Obama criticizing the Governor, he [Walker] immediately sent out letters to all of his supporters. I’m glad he [Obama] did that. I think it’s a mark of the weakness of this president that he’d say such a thing.
Hewitt: So Mr. Vice President, you dealt with Iran a lot both as Secretary of Defense, and eight years as Vice President. Do they strike you as a practically minded and responsive regime?
Cheney: Absolutely not, Hugh. This is the most, one of the most radical regimes in history, headed up by the mullahs who believe in a very, sort of, I think, twisted version of the Koran, who are sworn to destroy Israel, who always have these big meetings. They did just this week, because they were negotiating in Geneva, shouting Death To America. This is a totally radical regime that is the premiere sponsor of state terrorism in the world, and Obama’s about to give them nuclear weapons. It’s, I can’t think of a more terrible burden to leave the next president than what Obama is creating here.
Hugh Hewitt is a conservative, Catholic law professor , and is a law professor at Chapman University School of Law in Orange, California.
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