Chris Wallace Dazes Cheney: Iran's Centrifuges 'Went From 0 To 5,000' While You Were VP
Fox News host Chris Wallace forced former Vice President Dick Cheney to admit that Iran's centrifuges went from zero to 5,000 under his watch, not President Barack Obama's.
During an interview on Fox News, Cheney refused to back down from his assertion that Obama's nuclear deal with Iran was like Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler.
"If you look at what happened with respect to [Obama's] Iranian deal, the only winners are Iranians," he argued. "The losers are the United States, are the friends and allies of the United States in the region, the Israelis the Saudis and others."
"I think it's a big deal, a major, major defeat -- in my mind -- in terms of our position in the region."
Wallace pointed out that Cheney had eight years to deal with Iran's nuclear program and failed to do it.
"You and President Bush, the Bush-Cheney administration, dealt with Iran for eight years, and I think it was fair to say that there was never any real, serious military threat," Wallace noted. "Iran went from zero known centrifuges in operation to more than 5,000."
"So in fairness, didn't you leave -- the Bush-Cheney administration -- leave President Obama with a mess?" the Fox News host asked.
"I don't think of it that way," Cheney replied. "There was military action that had an impact on the Iranians, it was when we took down Saddam Hussein. There was a period of time when they stopped their program because they were scared that what we did to Saddam, we were going to do to them next."