WATCH: Biden Goes After Dick Cheney On Terror Trials

February 16, 2010  |  Posted by Danielle Belton

Watch the video below to see Biden take on Cheney.

Who are you going to believe? The vice president who wants to work within our laws to prosecute terrorists or the vice president who was STILL for torture even after his boss had shied away from it?

I'm putting my money on Vice President Joe Biden who said this about his predecessor Sunday:

I don't know where Dick Cheney has been. Look, it's one thing, again, to criticize. It's another thing to sort of rewrite history. What is he talking about?

The current vice president went all in on Sunday, hitting former Vice President Dick Cheney hard for his criticism of the Obama Administration and how they've handled terrorism suspects. Biden was on Meet the Press on NBC Sunday while former Vice President Dick Cheney went on ABC's This Week. What unfolded was a virtual VP debate where Biden represented common sense and upholding the rule of law while Cheney attempted to defend his legacy of torture and subverting the law to detain terrorism suspects.

Biden went on the attack -- hard -- as he repeatedly questioned if Cheney had forgotten that more than 300 terrorists were prosecuted in criminal court during the Bush-Cheney Administration, that they were convicted and are sitting in federal prisons and that the Bush Administration read "Shoe Bomber" Richard Reid his Miranda Rights.

By pointing out that the Bush-Cheney Administration had operated both inside and outside the law to prosecute terrorists and had more success working within the law, Biden wrecked Cheney's contradictory arguments. Cheney, on the other hand, admitted that he'd pushed for waterboarding even after President Bush became resistant to "harsh interrogation techniques" in the second term. Cheney said he was against Richard Reid being read his rights. Cheney repeatedly made statements that demonstrated he was almost always for jettisoning the rule of law when it came to national security.

Dick Cheney was out to defend his legacy of torture and indefinite detention, proving again, for him, that this has little to do with keeping Americans safe and everything to do with rewriting history to favor his irresponsible policies. Biden didn't let him get away with distorting the truth. He pushed back hard, giving the real facts on how when it comes to prosecuting terrorists it's always best to work within the law, rather than subvert and pervert it. Our system works and Dick Cheney is wrong.

blog comments powered by Disqus