During an appearance on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 on Tuesday night, CNN’s Paul Begala blasted Vice President Dick Cheney for blaming President Obama for the rise of ISIS.
The Democratic strategist argued that Cheney’s comments were “a portrait of a political sociopath...I actually went and looked up on the Mayo Clinic website the definition of that disorder and it fits Mr. Cheney to a T, inability to ever express remorse, to admit error, manipulative, dishonest.”
Begala continued to smear Cheney and brought up the liberal line that the invasion of Iraq was the sole cause for the spread of ISIS in the Middle East:
ISIS exists because of the invasion of Iraq. Iran is stronger because of the invasion of Iraq. We invaded Iraq because Mr. Cheney twisted intelligence to try to persuade the country to invade a country that was no threat to America. And now he sits there and actually has the gall to try to blame President Obama for trying to manage the damage.
Ari Fleischer, former Press Secretary for George W. Bush, pushed back against Begala’s assertion that Cheney was a “political sociopath for his ISIS comments and stressed that President Obama’s decision to leave Iraq had created a vacuum in the Middle East:
The fact that ISIS exists does create -- is created because of the vacuums that President Obama has created. The question was not, do you have any apologies that you would like to make over the eight years you were in office? Very different issue. And who knows what Dick Cheney would have said to that.
Later in the segment, Begala continued to trash Cheney and accused him of enriching the “terrorist regime in Tehran” while he served as the CEO of Haliburton:
But chief opponent of our sanctions against Iran was Dick Cheney then the CEO of Halliburton. And in that interview, he’s sitting in that beautiful mansion, he’s got all that money. That money came from Halliburton. Halliburton was trained with the enemy in Iran. They -- we passed the sanctions despite Cheney’s opposition, but then Cheney as head of Halliburton got around those sanction and he treated with the enemies.
He enriched the terrorist regime in Tehran. He enriched himself. And now he’s the one talking and saying that President Barack Obama is not tough enough on Iran? It just it boggles the mind for somebody with that kind of record. So now he’s lecturing President Obama. It’s amazing to me.
See relevant transcript below.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360
September 1, 2015
ANDERSON COOPER: Joining me now is Ari Fleischer, former Press Secretary for President George W. Bush and also CNN Political Commentator and Democratic Strategist, Paul Begala. He co-chairs a pro-Hillary Clinton's Super Pac. Paul, Cheney, they're laying the blame for the spread of ISIS solely at President Obama's feet.
PAUL BEGALA: Yeah, amazing. What a valuable piece of videotape. That is a portrait of a political sociopath for Dick Cheney...
COOPER: Political sociopath?
BEGALA: Political sociopath. Yes, I actually went and looked up on the Mayo Clinic website the definition of that disorder and it fits Mr. Cheney to a T, inability to ever express remorse, to admit error, manipulative, dishonest -- this point about ISIS, for example. ISIS exists because of the invasion of Iraq. Iran is stronger because of the invasion of Iraq. We invaded Iraq because Mr. Cheney twisted intelligence to try to persuade the country to invade a country that was no threat to America. And now he sits there and actually has the gall to try to blame President Obama for trying to manage the damage.
COOPER: Ari, I mean, is it irresponsible of the former Vice President not to accept any responsibility as Paul says?
ARI FLEISCHER, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, the question put to him was about ISIS and I think it's irrefutable. The fact that ISIS exists does create -- is created because of the vacuums that President Obama has created. The question was not, do you have any apologies that you would like to make over the eight years you were in office? Very different issue. And who knows what Dick Cheney would have said to that
--
BEGALA: Right. And the Senate select committee on intelligence issued at least what I read was declassified. A voluminous report on the CIA torture and say it did not help. I will say far be it from me to defend Dick Cheney, in other interviews he has said that it was good that President Obama killed bin Laden. And so at least -- but in this one, he didn’t. And again it goes to this. I’m telling you like on this question of Iran, I’m old enough to remember when Bill Clinton, my old boss, was trying to pass tough sanctions on Iran in the 1990s and we had strong Republican support for that. I’m sure Fleischer supported it.
But chief opponent of our sanctions against Iran was Dick Cheney then the CEO of Halliburton. And in that interview, he’s sitting in that beautiful mansion, he’s got all that money. That money came from Halliburton. Halliburton was trained with the enemy in Iran. They -- we passed the sanctions despite Cheney’s opposition, but then Cheney as head of Halliburton got around those sanction and he treated with the enemies. He enriched the terrorist regime in Tehran. He enriched himself. And now he’s the one talking and saying that President Barack Obama is not tough enough on Iran? It just it boggles the mind for somebody with that kind of record. So now he’s lecturing President Obama. It’s amazing to me.
