Cheney: Obama Should Apologize to Bush

In the wake of the U.S. killing of terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki, former Vice President Dick Cheney says President Obama should apologize to the Bush administration for criticizing their war on terrorism policies. Cheney told CNN's Candy Crowley that President Obama has been hypocritical in attacking Bush policies while fully embracing them as president. “The Obama administration has clearly reached a point where they've agreed they need to be tough and aggressive in defending the nation and using some of the same techniques as the Bush administration did,” Cheney said Sunday on “State of the Union.” “Don’t get wrapped up in your underwear, then trying to go back and validate, if you will, some of the foolish things they said during the course of their campaign.” Cheney, appearing on the program with his daughter, Liz, said he wants the president to take back his criticism of the government’s decision to use enhanced-interrogations techniques after the 9/11 attacks. “The thing I'm waiting for is for the administration to go back and correct something they said two years ago when they criticized us for 'overreacting' to the events of 9/11,” said Cheney. “They, in effect, said that we had walked away from our ideals, or taken policy contrary to our ideals when we had enhanced interrogation techniques.” “Now they clearly had moved in the direction of taking robust action when they feel it is justified. I say in this case I think it was, but I think they need to go back and reconsider what the president said when he was in Cairo,” he added. “If you’ve got the president of the United States out there saying we’ve overreacted to 9/11 on our watch, that’s not good,” he told Crowley. He also spoke harshly about the president’s public sentiments on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “He wanted, I assume for political reasons, not to call it a war, not to call it a war on terror," Cheney said. “They need to call it what it is.” Liz Cheney was equally as tough as her father with regard to Obama. The chairwoman of Keep America Safe said the country must exude strength, credibility and leadership, and “this president seems unwilling, frankly, to do all of those things.” “I think he did tremendous damage,” she said. “I think he slandered the nation, and I think he owes an apology to the American people.” She told Crowley she was not going to run for office in 2012 and that she, like her father, has not endorsed a candidate but is supportive of those in the GOP field. “I felt good about the fact that our candidates clearly understand, for example, how important the private sector is going to be in getting us out of this economic mess we're in, something that this White House doesn't understand,” she said.