After previews from an upcoming biography of former President George H.W. Bush painted Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld as poor advisors during his son’s administration, the former defense secretary had a scathing response Thursday.
The senior Bush told biographer Jon Meacham that Rumsfeld “served the President badly” and called him “an arrogant fellow” with an “iron-ass view of everything” in the book, out next week.
Rumsfeld fired back in a statement to NBC News: “Bush 41 is getting up in years and misjudges Bush 43, who I found made his own decisions.”
George H.W. didn’t spare his son’s vice president from criticism in the book, saying Cheney became “very hard-line” after the 9/11 terror attacks.
“He just became very hard-line and very different from the Dick Cheney I knew and worked with,” Bush 41 says in the book. “His seeming knuckling under to the real hard-charging guys who want to fight about everything, use force to get our way in the Middle East.”
This story has been updated.
The GOP cage match is spilling out into the audience.
You’re not getting any younger, either, sweetums.
It’s not his memoir. It’s a biography by Jon Meacham.
Arrogant!!!
History will flay Rummy and Dickey