Axelrod Smacks Down Cheney: Not Acting Like A Statesman (VIDEO)

The president's senior adviser, David Axelrod, shot back at Dick Cheney on Sunday, suggesting that the former vice president had failed in the war on terror and was therefore engaging in "supreme" irony by accusing the Obama administration of making American less safe.

As an added bonus, Axelrod drew a sharp contrast between Cheney and his former boss, George W. Bush, who he said "behaved like a statesman" during the presidential transition.

From Axelrod's interview with CNN's State of the Union with John King":

"First of all, I find it supremely ironic on a day when we were meeting with NATO to talk about the continued threat from al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan where they are still plotting against us seven years later; I think the question for Mr. Cheney is how could that be? How could this have gone so long? Why are they still in business? That is the fundamental threat that we face and it's a little incredible to me that he would argue somehow that... forging an international alliance to finally pursue a strategy to defeat and dismantle al Qaeda and Afghanistan is going make us less safe. I think it was an unfortunate statement. Let me say in contrast how much we appreciate the way President Bush has behaved. He was incredibly cooperative during the transition and when he left, he said, 'I wish you guys the best. I'm rooting for you.' I believe that to be the case. And he has behaved like a statesman and, as I've said before, here and elsewhere, I just don't think the memo got passed down to the vice president."

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