President Barack Obama has destroyed America’s reputation as an "exceptional" nation, throwing out decades of strong leadership by commanders-in-chief from both political parties, former Vice President Dick Cheney tells
Newsmax TV.
"It's a dangerous time. We've seen rising threats around the world, ISIS in the Middle East, [Russian President] Vladamir Putin on the march in Europe, the Chinese in the South China Sea," Cheney said Wednesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show.
"And as these threats grow, our capacity to deal with them is being diminished because they cut some of the defense budget and because, frankly, Barack Obama doesn't believe in an exceptional America.
"If you go back 70 years … you'll find presidents of both parties from FDR and Harry Truman and Jack Kennedy to [Richard] Nixon and [Ronald] Reagan and the Bushes and forward … shared a basic fundamental proposition … that the U.S. did have a role to play in the world as the exceptional nation.
Cheney, who served as vice president under President George W. Bush, said "Barack Obama clearly doesn't believe that."
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The former vice president under George W. Bush is co-author with his daughter Liz Cheney of the new book,
"Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America," published by Threshold Editions.
"We thought it was very important to get out there and make the case," Cheney told Ed Berliner, host of "The Hard Line." "First of all, that there are very serious threats we're facing, perhaps the most serious since the end of World War II. And on the other hand, the capacity force to manage those threats and deal with them has been significantly reduced."
Cheney told Malzberg Obama has "an ideology or a world view that doesn't fit reality."
Cheney is disturbed by the impending approval of Iran nuclear deal, a multinational accord that would curb Iran's nuclear weapons program in exchange for financial sanctions being lifted.
At least 34 senators — the number needed to sustain a veto — will back Obama's expected veto of a GOP resolution to sink the deal. Senator Barbara Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat who is retiring at the end of her term, gave the president the 34th vote Wednesday.
And Democrats are hoping to get the 41 votes needed to filibuster the bill and stop it from even getting to a final vote in the Senate.
"If [Democrats are successful], there won't be any vote and no member of the Senate will ever be recorded in a vote on their position on this issue. That's total neutering if you will … [a] neutering of the United States Senate in one of the most important issues that's likely to come before them in this decade," he said.
"I do not understand why they've allowed that to happen. Obama obviously has worked very hard to make it happen.... The Democrats have the capacity if they've got 41 votes to filibuster the Senate to the point where there never will be a vote on the substance of this issue.
"Under the rules of the Senate, the majority leader can't do anything about that, you end up with a filibuster if they've got the votes."
Cheney also discussed the winners and losers of the deal.
"The only winner out of that agreement are the Iranians, in terms of having a path ultimately to develop nuclear weapons … receiving over $100 billion, sanctions being lifted, the embargo on ballistic missiles being lifted, the embargo on conventional arms being lifted," Cheney told Steve Malzberg.
"They get everything in this deal and the Israelis and the Saudis and the Jordanians, the Egyptians, the Emirates, all of our friends and allies in that part of the world are appalled with what happened, but they also feel directly threatened by a nuclear-armed Iran.
"The deal is, from my perspective, the only way to interpret it and what [Obama's] motives were was he really wanted to boost Iran's position in that part of the world and make them the dominant force at the expense of our allies."
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