Lieberman breaks with Cheney: ‘We’re not less safe’

Former Vice President Dick Cheney is wrong to suggest the U.S. is any less safe under the Obama administration, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Monday.

“No, we’re not less safe,” Lieberman said during an appearance on MSNBC, breaking with the previous administration whose foreign policy goals the centrist Democrat often supported.

“I think this administration has done everything it could,” the Connecticut lawmaker continued. “On balance, we are as safe as we can possibly be.”

Lieberman had been a critic of the Obama administration’s foreign policy record while campaigning for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) last fall, but has been more supportive since the president backed Lieberman’s bid to retain his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

“I disagree with some of the things the administration has done, but even in the closing of Guantanamo they’ve been very methodical at this point,” Lieberman argued. “The Obama administration has put more resources into fighting the war against terrorism that had previously been the case.”