The Unknown Candidate: Cheney's State of Denial

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Cheney's State of Denial

VIDEO: Cheney Cursed Out Woodward Over Kissinger Revelations

Trouble watching this video? Click here.

"Bob Woodward, author of the best-selling State of Denial, appeared on Meet the Press this morning to talk to Timmeh about the book and the White House's reaction to it. Woodward shot down every talking point the administration has put out in an attempt to obfuscate his core message: that we are not being told the entire truth about the Iraq War.

Woodward also tells Russert another fascinating nugget of information: Vice-President Cheney cursed him out over the information he revealed about the White House mettings with Henry Kissinger and hung up on him.

From NBC:

MR. RUSSERT: Have you spoken to the president or the vice president since this book came out?

MR. WOODWARD: The vice president called me I guess as it was coming out 10 days ago.

MR. RUSSERT: And?

MR. WOODWARD: Well, he called to complain that I was quoting him about the meetings with Henry Kissinger that he and the president had. I had interviewed Vice President Cheney last year a couple of times at length about material I'm gathering on the Ford administration, on-the-record interviews, but he volunteered, he said, "Oh, by the way, Henry Kissinger comes in" and he, Dick Cheney, sits down with him once a month and the president every two or three months. And Cheney was upset I was quoting him. And I said, "Look, this—on-the-record doesn't have anything to do with Ford, you volunteered that." He then used a word which I can't repeat on the air. And I said, "Look, on the record is on the record," and he hung up on me.

MR. RUSSERT: What, what do you mean, he swore at you?

MR. WOODWARD: He, he said what I was saying was bull-something [...] No, but he, but he hung up. Now, look, I can, I can see, I went back and looked at the transcript that he can—ever had a disagreement about ground rules with someone. Have you?

MR. RUSSERT: Well, he thought he was talking, he thought he was talking to you for one project and you used it in another project.

MR. WOODWARD: Well, exactly. But it had nothing to do with it, and it's clearly spelled out that it's an on-the-record interview. And so—now, what does he do instead of saying, "Well, OK, I look at it this way, you look at it that way." It's a metaphor for what's going on. Hang up when somebody has a different point of view or information you don't want to deal with."

Thanks to The Silent Patriot.