ANKARA, Turkey, June 26 (UPI) -- President Bush, en route Saturday from Ireland to Turkey, said Vice President Dick Cheney's cursing this week was a private exchange.
According to White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, the president said of Cheney's testy exchange with Sen. Patrick Leahey, D-Vt., "it was a private exchange, these things happen from time-to-time."
McClellan, speaking aboard Air Force One, added the president said the exchange is "behind us now" and that he was looking ahead.
Cheney's exchange with Leahey came Thursday after a photo session on Capitol Hill when, over a discussion of recent Democratic attacks of Cheney's tenure at the Haliburton Co., the vice president told the senator to "go f-"himself.
Bush was in Ireland Saturday for a meeting of European Union leaders and was traveling to Turkey, ahead of planned NATO summit next week.
In comments Friday to Fox News, the vice president defended his use of an obscenity, saying "I expressed myself rather forcefully, felt better after I did," adding later "I think a lot of my colleagues felt that what I said badly needed to be said."
Cheney accused Leahey of challenging his integrity.
