Former Vice President Dick Cheney (R) and his daughter Liz Cheney made a joint appearance at the conservative Steamboat Institute’s annual Freedom Conference on Friday, where they expressed disappointment with President Barack Obama’s attitude toward national security.
The former vice president, who made national security a priority in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, stressed that the U.S. is still under threat at home.
“The biggest threat facing us are terrorists armed with something more dangerous than plane tickets and box cutters,” Cheney told the sold-out crowd in Steamboat Springs, Colo., as quoted by the Steamboat Pilot & Today.
Liz Cheney, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Wyoming, was critical of Obama’s attitude toward conflicts on foreign soil. Cheney said that one only has to watch the news on television to see that “the world is worse when America is weak or walks away,” according to the newspaper.
The Cheneys agreed that National Security Agency surveillance programs are in the best interests of national security, but said that a change in leadership is necessary for the country’s safety.
“The NSA is a well-run program,” Dick Cheney said, as quoted by the Pilot & Today. “It’s an important program. The president doesn’t concur with a lot of views on national security. But you wouldn’t throw the baby out with the bath water. The president is not up to the job and doesn’t have the same core values we do. We shouldn’t limit our defense or defense tools. We just need to beat him in the next election.”
