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Fox News to Dick Cheney's face: You got it wrong, sir

Cheney sticks to his guns, says there was "no doubt" in Bush administration's mind Iraq had weapons of mass destruction in 2003.

By Matt Bradwell
Former Vice President Dick Cheney. UPI/Jim Ruymen
Former Vice President Dick Cheney. UPI/Jim Ruymen | License Photo

NEW YORK, June 19 (UPI) -- The same day former Vice President Dick Cheney and daughter Lynn co-penned an editorial blasting the Obama administration's international policy, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly grilled the pair about the former vice president's own role in enabling current unrest in Iraq.

Appearing on Wednesday's edition of The Kelly File, Dick and Lynn Cheney answered questions about the Levant's 21st century history and the Bush administration's arguably precarious influence on the region.

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"In your op-ed, you write as follows: 'Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many," Kelly led. "But time and time again, history has proven that you got it wrong as well sir."

"You said there were no doubts that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. You said we would be greeted as liberators. You said the Iraq insurgency was in its last throes back in 2005. And you said after our intervention, extremists would have to 'rethink their strategy of jihad.' Now with almost a trillion dollars spent there with 4,500 American lives lost there, what do you say to those who say you were so wrong about so much at the expense of so many?"

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Cheney took exception to Kelly's assessment, saying there was "no doubt" about claims of weapons of mass destruction.

"No, I just fundamentally disagree, Reagan -- I mean, Megyn," Cheney countered.

"You've got to go back and look at the track record. We inherited a situation where there was no doubt in anybody's mind about the extent of Saddam's involvement in weapons of mass destruction ... Saddam Hussein had a track record that nearly everybody agreed to."

The interview was conducted the same day the father-daughter duo blamed President Obama for Sunni extremists' increasingly violent insurgency in Iraq.

"When Mr. Obama and his team came into office in 2009, al Qaeda in Iraq had been largely defeated, thanks primarily to the heroic efforts of U.S. armed forces during the surge," the Cheneys wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

"[Obama] abandoned Iraq and we are watching American defeat snatched from the jaws of victory."

When Kelly bluntly countered this claim, saying, "The suggestion is that you caused this mess," Liz rushed to defend her father's legacy.

"There's no surprise, frankly, that there are a lot of people now that want to blame the Bush/Cheney administration for what happened, that's a pretty routine thing we hear from this administration," the junior Cheney asserted.

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