John McCain Counters Dick, Liz Cheney On Calls For Obama To Apologize Over Torture Criticism (VIDEO)

In an appearance Monday on CNN, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) appeared to reject a suggestion from former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, Liz Cheney, that the Obama administration owed the Bush administration an apology, following a recent drone strike that killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric affiliated with al Qaeda.

Over the weekend, the former vice president appeared with his daughter on CNN's "State of the Union" and told host Candy Crowley that the successful operation was proof that Obama had been overly harsh in a 2009 speech in Cairo which criticized controversial intelligence practices carried out by the Bush administration.

"The thing I am waiting for is for the administration to go back and correct something they said two years ago, when they criticized us for 'overreacting' to the events of 9/11," Cheney said. "They in effect said we had walked away from our ideals, taking policy contrary to our ideals when we had enhanced interrogation techniques. They have clearly moved in the direction of taking robust action when they feel it is justified. In this case, it was."

"He slandered the nation," Liz Cheney added, "and I think he owes an apology to the American people. Those are the policies that kept us safe."

McCain appeared to disagree with the Cheneys on Monday, expressing his support for the mission to kill Awlaki, but refusing to judge it as a broader victory for "enhanced interrogation techniques, i.e. torture," as he put it.

“It is very obvious that one of the great recruitment tools that our enemy has is the fact that we tortured people, which is not in keeping with the standards of the treatment of prisoners," McCain said. "We never got useful information as a result of torture, but we sure got a lot of angry citizens around the world, and deservedly so."

Pressed more directly on the supposed need for an apology, McCain pointed to arguments that he has used repeatedly against the Cheneys' defense of the controversial practices, noting the Senate's overwhelming support for putting limits on interrogation techniques and the clear protections provided by the Geneva Convention.

Watch video from Think Progress above. Highlights from Sunday's talk shows are below.

Comments

[murphysgirl]

11:34 PM on 10/04/2011

Last year the Cheneys were running to every news channel claiming how the US wasn't safe under Obama..Now that Obama has major foreign policy victories under his belt, the Cheneys want to take credit..Dick and Liz have reached new lows..

[SimpleCity]

10:26 PM on 10/04/2011

Dick Cheney was once one of the most dangerous people in the world. Once please.

[pablitop]

10:03 PM on 10/04/2011

It's time to pull the plug on Cheney. He outed a CIA operative. He deserves to be behind bars without conjugal visits.

[Greatest Darthfruit]

09:56 PM on 10/04/2011

"So you think you can argue" coming soon, check your local TV guide

[roooth]

09:47 PM on 10/04/2011

When Liz says "those are the policies that kept our country safe", what she really means is, "those are the policies that ensured my grossly inflated, blood-soaked inheritance. Thanks, daddy."

[craig asia]

09:40 PM on 10/04/2011

McCain still has moments where he shows his independence and his personal greatness that once was. No man is all bad....well, no man other than Cheney_!

[Greatest Darthfruit]

09:37 PM on 10/04/2011

"So You Think You Can Argue" The new show, coming soon to your local FOX!

[Brian Austin]

09:31 PM on 10/04/2011

The man with no pulse and a cold heart believes he deserves credit for something positive that was done under Obama. However, when it comes to unemployment, the deficit and the economy as a whole, that is all Obama's fault. There is no way the Bush Administration's policies could have had anything to do with it.
In other words: when Obama does well, it is the result of Bush; when Obama struggles, he is all alone.

[BobRobertsFeltRedundant]

07:36 PM on 10/04/2011

hmm

[BobRobertsFeltRedundant]

07:35 PM on 10/04/2011

I'm a little unclear on how something bush might have_tortured out of somebody 2.5 years ago might have had anything to do with a recent drone strike

are the_cheney's just trying to hog_credit for things they didn't do?

[noaxe397]

07:34 PM on 10/04/2011

During the 2008 (repeat, 2008) GOP presidential debates, there was a question asked of the panel by the moderator: is waterboarding torture? America's mayor Rudy Guliani copped out and said he didn't know. McCain stole the show when he responded by saying (paraphrasing) "take it from someone who has been waterboarded; it IS torture." I cannot remember a moment in presidentail debate history when one candidate looked so big and one so small than at that moment, except maybe Lloyd Bentsen's smackdown of Dan Quayle in their VP debate. McCain never looked back after that moment.

[noaxe397]

07:24 PM on 10/04/2011

I blame elected Dems for not giving more push back to the Cheneys over their bragging about how they approved of torture. A case is easy to make, and Obama, following his recent comments over the booing by the audience at a GOP debate over a soldier's sexual orientation, is now poised perfectly to make the case that the Cheney's in their support of torture put US troops in greater danger in the field of battle during a time of war and it is THEY who owe the nation an apology. Believe me, the Cheneys are so accustomed to the media free ride they would be totally knocked off their game. Why is there no Dem official push back on this matter since we are now fighting smart instead of hard and achieving much better results. In other words, why are Dems so inept at taking credit for what they do right?

[Ohbeewun]

06:08 PM on 10/04/2011

McCain with a lucid moment! Bravo! Cheney's the one who owes the American people an apology, for lying us into war, for cooking the intel, and for this utter BS that statements obtained under torture have any value whatsoever (except propoganda, such as used by N. Korea and N. Vietnam, something McCain knows about all too well). Cheney is a disgrace to everything this country stands for.

[ERyker]

06:07 PM on 10/04/2011

Most of the time in recent years I have thought John McCain a clueless and hypocritical senior citizen, ready to shed his ostensible principles at the drop of a hat in order to be elected (although he is orders of magnitude less objectionable than the Cheneys). On this occasion, I commend what he said and did. To my mind, and I'm not being entirely fanciful, there is something genuinely evil and not-quite-human about Dick, Lynne, and Liz Cheney (I'll give Mary a pass, since she has largely stayed out of the public eye).

[Dhammi]

06:05 PM on 10/04/2011

OMG - John McCain had a problem answering the question with a simple yes or no.

Oh well he did agree with ridding the world of this home-grown terrorist and I'll give him that.

[valluhree]

08:22 PM on 10/04/2011

His questions were yeses and no's, they were just very long, elaborate ones. And very slow ones.
But good on him for what he said!