Biden slams Cheney for having ‘weakened’ the U.S.

Vice President Cheney “weakened” the United States during his time in office, Vice President Biden argued Tuesday.

“His power weakened America, in my view,” Biden told CNN in an interview, saying Cheney’s high levels of influence within the Bush administration led to a “divided” government.

“There was Cheney and his own sort of separate national security agency, and then there was the National Security Agency. There was Powell, who didn’t agree with Cheney, and Cheney off with Rumsfeld,” Biden explained. “There was a divided government, a divided administration.”

Biden asserted that the Obama administration was different, with Biden working more closely with President Obama than Cheney had with President Bush.

“The strength of this administration is that the president and I work in concert,” Biden said. “I am very straightforward in my views…But they’re done in the context of one National Security Agency, a united national security team.”

Biden also slammed Cheney as “dead wrong” in his characterization of the Obama administration as having made the U.S. less safe, though said Cheney was not out of line to say that.