Steve Kroft visited the set of Reliable Sources to talk about his interview with President Obama on 60 Minutes.
KURTZ: Now, one of the things you asked about that's making some headlines this morning was Vice President Cheney, who was on "STATE OF THE UNION" last Sunday, was asked by John King about Barack Obama's presidency. And Cheney pointed out, the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison, or the plans to close it, I should say, and said that he believes that President Obama is making America less safe.
You asked Barack Obama about that, and the president said, "How many terrorists have actually been brought to justice under these Cheney philosophy?" Obama said, "It hasn't made us safer. What it has been is great advertisement for anti-American sentiment."
Were you surprised that he went back at Cheney as hard as he did?
KROFT: I guess I was a little bit surprised. I thought there were going to be two responses. I think that either the first response was going to be, "I don't want to talk about Dick Cheney, it's Dick Cheney," or he was going to tee off on him, which he decided to do very, very aggressively. So I was a little surprised.
I'd like to know when Kurtz is going to ask if anyone was surprised that Vice President Cheney "teed off" on President Obama rather than asking if he deserved the same treatment back. Once Cheney opened his mouth as far as I'm concerned, the gloves were off. The President has a right to defend himself against the likes of Cheney, ex-Vice President or not.
Every "news organization" in town used Cheney's interview as an excuse to repeat his right wing talking points as a lead in to question Democrats with for a week or two straight after he gave that sorry excuse for an interview with Mr. Human Events John King. I would have been disappointed had the President not responded the way he did.
