Dick Cheney Criticizes President Obama
LEMON: Are President Obama's critics across the aisle hurting the President, or is all this talk about impeachment actually working for the White House? Back with me now, Charles Blow, Ben Ferguson and Jason Riley. OK, let's talk again. Jason, Sarah Palin calling for the President's impeach. Karl Rove thinking that's exactly what the White House wants. I want you to take a listen about what Dick Cheney told our Jake Tapper today about impeachment.</s>JAKE TAPPER, ABC NEWS SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Your successor as vice president nominee in 2008 Sarah Palin recently called for the impeachment of President Obama. What do you think about that?</s>FMR. VICE PRES. DICK CHENEY (R), UNITED STATES: I'm not prepared at this point to call for the impeachment of the President. I think he is the worst president of my lifetime. I fundamentally disagree with him. I think he is doing a lot of things wrong. I'm glad to see that the House Republicans are challenging him at least legally at this point. But I think that gets to be a bit of a distraction, just like the impeachment of Bill Clinton did.</s>LEMON: So Jason, you think the White House wants to keep this impeachment talk going as a distraction?</s>RILEY: Absolutely. I would go further than Dick Cheney, though. I think the lawsuit is also a distraction. These are attempts to criminalize political differences. And what Republicans should be focused on is winning elections, not trying to drum up legal charges against the President or push for impeachment. I don't think anything that the President has done amounts to high crimes.</s>LEMON: OK, Charles, here is something else that Dick Cheney had to say that is making headlines. Here it is.</s>TAPPER: You have said that Hillary Clinton you think would have been a better president than Barack Obama. She and you --</s>CHENEY: Jimmy Carter might have been a better president than Barack Obama. And I didn't think I would ever say that.</s>LEMON: So the depth of his dislike to the President is pretty clear there. I mean, is this something a vice president should be doing about two former presidents? George Bush has stayed quietly above the fray. And should he be doing the same thing?</s>BLOW: Yes, I don't know if he is above it or below it or wherever, he sought of sight, though. And I think that's a classy move. I think that the Republicans have plenty of operatives who could be doing this. I don't think you need to have a former vice president, particularly the previous vice president to be constantly on the attack, constantly kind of nudging the current administration. There is something about it to me that seems rather unseemly. I don't think that, you know, he must get something out of it. He must enjoy it on some level. He gets a lot of blow back from it. But he continues to do it anyway with his daughter. So he must enjoy it. But I don't think it necessarily helps the debate. I don't think it helps the Republicans at all.</s>LEMON: OK. Ben, that leaves me perfectly -- hang on, you'll get your chance, into the next sound bite that I want you to listen to. Dick Cheney explaining why he is becoming more vocal on political issues. Here it is.</s>CHENEY: I'm 73 years old. Every day I get is up a gift. I was an in-stage heart failure two years ago. I got a new heart. It does wonders for your attitude. But from my perspective, I feel very strongly that these things need to be said. And if I don't say them, I don't know who else will from the standpoint of the Republican Party or somebody who has my background and experience over the last 40 years.</s>LEMON: Ben, there something to saying you know what? You had your chance for eight years, or whoever long you're in politics, you're retired, you're out of it. Now have a seat.</s>FERGUSON: Two perks to being Dick Cheney. One, you were not the president. You were the vice president.</s>LEMON: That's arguable.</s>FERGUSON: So you are allowed to come out and still talk. And I think that's one of the perks. The other thing is this. I love how we always wish that politicians would give blunt answers and not pc answers and actually answer the question that they're asked about. We always complain about people that, you know, run around something or don't want to give their opinion. He is giving his opinion. He is being blunt. He is answering the actual questions, and then we still want to criticize him for it. I like it. I think it's a breath of fresh air. I think he is being bold and blunt. He's being consistent with his career. And he is the vice president of the United States of America. He is saying look, I almost died. This is what I've done with my life. You want to talk to me about it, I'm not going to dodge a question. And you may not like what he says. But I like the fact that he is willing to be man enough to actually do it and say it and stand by his convictions. I think it should be applauded.</s>LEMON: Hey, Jason. You know, people want to hear Bill Clinton all the time. He speaks out all the time.</s>RILEY: All the time.</s>LEMON: But what are Republicans, how do they feel behind the scenes about Dick Cheney speaking out?</s>RILEY: Well, I sit around wondering what happened to the Dick Cheney wing of the GOP. And I think we have a president who sort of said I want a light footprint. I want to withdraw from the world. And we see the result of that. When you try as the leader of the free world not to lead, or to lead from behind.</s>LEMON: Absolutely.</s>RILEY: I think it leads to very bad outcomes. We're seeing that play out. And there aren't a lot of people in the GOP who sort of want to shoot spitballs at the President. But no one is coming up with an alternative, other than a few people. You still have your Lindsey Grahams, you still have your John McCain's. But a lot of the GOP I think has been a little bit cowed. And I wish that the Cheney wing of the GOP would make a resurgence. I think the world could use it right now.</s>BLOW: So, that's a damning statement about the GOP. And it came up in Cheney's comments himself. He said that if I don't say it at my age, then nobody will. If there is no one in the entire Republican Party who could be making the case who is actively engaged in republican politics now and acted an actual elected official who is a republican who could say what Dick Cheney is saying who is a part of the process in the game right now, but that's a sad statement about the Republican Party.</s>LEMON: Thank you guys, we'll have to leave it there. Thank you very much. If you ever use your couch cushions to build a fort back in the day, you had your very own little country at least for a few minutes. Next, we're going to talk with one dad who is building his little princess a real kingdom.