Lynne Cheney Blasts CNN: ‘Why Are You Running Terrorist Propaganda?’

During an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Lynne Cheney turned the tables on the cable network and bluntly asked if Blitzer wanted the U.S. to win in Iraq:

Lynne Cheney: "Right, But what is CNN doing running terrorist tape of terrorist shooting Americans? I mean, I thought Duncan Hunter asked you a very good question and you didn’t answer it. Do you want us to win?"

Wolf Blitzer: "The answer, of course, is we want the United States to win. We are Americans. There’s no doubt about it. You think we want terrorists to win?"

The Vice President’s wife was referring to an October 23 segment with Congressman Duncan Hunter, in which he criticized the network for airing footage of insurgents killing Americans. Mrs. Cheney, who appeared on the October 27 edition of "The Situation Room," continued her harsh analysis of CNN. "Why," she wondered, "are you running terrorist propaganda?"

Video clip (1:16): Real (2.2 MB) or Windows Media (2.6 MB), plus MP3 audio (450 KB)

A transcript of the exchange follows:

10/27/06 at 5:33p.m. EDT

Lynne Cheney: "I’m hear to talk about my book. But if you want to talk about distortion-"

Wolf Blitzer: "We’ll talk about your book."

Cheney: "Right, But what is CNN doing running terrorist tape of terrorist shooting Americans? I mean, I thought Duncan Hunter asked you a very good question and you didn’t answer it. Do you want us to win?"

Blitzer: "The answer, of course, is we want the United States to win. We are Americans. There’s no doubt about it. You think we want terrorists to win?"

Cheney: "Then why are you running- Why are you running terrorist propaganda?"

Blitzer: "With all due respect- With all due respect, this is not terrorist propaganda."

Cheney: "Oh, Wolf!"

Blitzer: "This is, this is reporting the news which is what we do. We’re not partisan."

Cheney: "Where did you get the film?"

Blitzer: "We got the film- Look, this is an issue that has been widely discussed. This is an issue that we reported on extensively. We make no apologies for showing that. That was a very carefully considered decision why we did that. And I think- And I think that if you’re-"

Cheney: "Well, I think it’s shocking."

Blitzer: "-If you’re a serious journalist, you want to report the news. Sometimes the news is good, sometimes the news isn’t so good."

Cheney: "But Wolf, there’s a difference between news and terrorist propaganda. Why, why are you giving the terrorists a forum?"

Blitzer: "And if you put it in context-If you put it in context, that’s what news is. We said it was propaganda. We didn’t distort where we got it. We didn’t distort anything about it. We gave it the context."