Lynne Cheney repeatedly attacked CNN for having a liberal bias during a fiery and combative appearance today on the Situation Room.
Cheney said a CNN special that aired yesterday was a “terrible distortion of both the president and the vice president’s position on many issues,” in part because CNN used the phrase “domestic surveillance” to describe the so-called “Terrorist Surveillance Program.” When Wolf Blitzer pointed out that some individuals have been arrested and interrogated despite having no ties to terrorism, Cheney warned, “I think that you might be a little careful” declaring someone has “clean hands.”
Later, Cheney criticized Virginia Senate candidate Jim Webb for including sexually explicit material in his novels. Asked whether her own novel Sisters had “lesbian characters,” Cheney said, “no, not necessarily. This description is a lie. I’ll stand on that.” In fact, her novel did contain multiple scenes describing a lesbian love affair.
Repeatedly, Cheney asked Wolf Blitzer to end his line of questioning and about her new children’s book.
Watch it:
[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2006/10/lynne.320.240.flv]
Full transcript:
Full transcript:
CHENEY: You know, I understand your point. It’s kind of the point of a lot of people right now, to try to distort the administration’s position, and if you really want to talk about that, I watched the program on CNN last night, which I though — it’s your 2006 voter program, which I thought was a terrible distortion of both the president and the vice president’s position on many issues. It seemed almost straight out of Democratic talking points using phrasing like “domestic surveillance.”
[…]
CHENEY: You know, I think that you might be a little careful before you declare this as a person with clean hands.
BLITZER: You’re referring to the CNN “BROKEN GOVERNMENT” special.
CHENEY: I certainly am.
BLITZER: This was the one that John King reported on last night.
CHENEY: Well, you know, right there, Wolf, “BROKEN GOVERNMENT.” Now, what kind of stance is that? Here we are. We’re a country where we have been mightily challenged over the past six years. We’ve been through 9/11. We’ve been through Katrina. The president and the vice president inherited a recession. We’re a country where the economy is healthy. That’s not broken. This government has acted very well.
[…]
CHENEY: Well, all right, Wolf. I’m here to talk about my book, but if you want to talk about distortion…
BLITZER: We’ll talk about your book.
CHENEY: Well, right, but what is CNN doing running terrorist tapes of terrorists shooting Americans? I mean, I saw Duncan Hunter ask you a very good question and you didn’t answer it. Do you want us to win?
BLITZER: The answer is, of course, we want the United States to win. We are Americans. There’s no doubt about that. Do you think we want terrorists to win?
CHENEY: Then why are you running terrorist propaganda?
BLITZER: With all due respect — with all due respect, this is not terrorist propaganda.
CHENEY: Oh, Wolf.
BLITZER: This is reporting the news.
[…]
CHENEY: Now, do you promise, Wolf, that we’re going to talk about my book?
BLITZER: I do promise.
CHENEY: Because this seems to be a mighty long trip around the merry-go-round.
BLITZER: I want you to — this was in the news today and your name has come up, so that’s why we’re talking about it.
[…]
BLITZER: Here’s what the Democratic Party put out today, the Democratic Congressional — Senatorial Campaign Committee: “Lynne Cheney’s book featured brothels and attempted rape. In 1981, Vice
President Dick Cheney’s wife, Lynne, wrote a book called “Sisters”, which featured a lesbian love affair, brothels and attempted rapes.”
CHENEY: No.
BLITZER: “In 1988, Lynn Cheney wrote about a Republican vice president who dies of a heart attack while having sex with his mistress.” Is that true?
CHENEY: Nothing explicit. And actually, that was full of lies. It’s not — it’s just — it’s absolutely not a…
BLITZER: Did you write a book entitled “Sisters”?
CHENEY: I did write a book entitled “Sisters.”
BLITZER: It did have lesbian characters.
CHENEY: This — no, not necessarily. This description is a lie. I’ll stand on that.
BLITZER: There’s nothing in there about rape and brothels?
CHENEY: Well, Wolf, could we talk about a children’s book for a minute?
BLITZER: We can talk about the children’s book. I just wanted to…
CHENEY: I think my segment is, like, 15 minutes long and we’ve had about 10 minutes of…
BLITZER: I just wanted to — I just wanted to clarify what’s in the news today, given — this is…
CHENEY: Sex, lies and distortion.