Former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz sat down with the Washington Free Beacon to discuss the recent formation of their new group, the Alliance for a Strong America.
"From our perspective, we looked at what was happening first and foremost with this president and his policies, and recognized that it is critically important that those of us who understand the importance of American strength in the world, who understand the importance of America playing a leadership role in the world, who understand the importance of, as my dad said, beginning to rebuild our defenses, beginning to rebuild the defense budget, who understand that the president has also disseminated our intelligence activities in many ways—that we speak out, that we educate people, that we advocate on behalf of these policies that we feel are very important," Liz Cheney said. "It’s about the future."
The group quickly garnered media attention thanks, in part, to an essay in the Wall Street Journal in which the Cheneys focused their criticisms on the failings of the current administration.
"There are people who, I suppose, want to say well this is just re-arguing Iraq all over again. No it’s not," Dick Cheney told the Free Beacon. "The fact of the matter today is the threat that the United States faces is greater than what we faced back in those days, and those days were pretty significant."
When asked why he didn’t want to leave the messaging to someone else, he said, "Because I believe it."
"I always believed if you wanted to be loved, go be a movie star. We’re dealing with very serious issues and somebody has to stand up and say, look, this is not about what happened ten or twelve or fourteen years ago, although it is important to understand the history. It’s what we’re going to do next, and that this administration is pursuing policy that are going to make us even more vulnerable, even weaker, less able to defend ourselves against the mounting threat," he said.