Transcript: Cheney Defends Hard Line Tactics

CHENEY: I disagree with that. I think – as I look at the intelligence with respect to Iraq, what they got wrong was that there weren't any stockpiles. What we found in the after action reports, after the intelligence report was done and then various special groups went and looked at the intelligence and what its validity was. What they found was that Saddam Hussein still had the capability to produce weapons of mass destruction. He had the technology, he had the people, he had the basic feed stocks.

They also found that he had every intention of resuming production once the international sanctions were lifted. He had a long reputation and record of having started two wars. Of having brutalized and killed hundreds of thousands of people, some of them with weapons of mass destruction in his own country. He had violated 16 National Security Council resolutions. He had established a relationship as a terror sponsoring state according to the State Department. He was making $25,000 payments to the families of suicide bombers.

This was a bad actor and the country's better off, the world's better off with Saddam gone and I think we made the right decision in spite of the fact that the original NIE was off in some of its major judgments.

KARL: So you're 30 something – how many more days do you have left?

CHENEY: Thirty five!

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KARL: Thirty five more days left. Who's counting? hat advice do you have to Joe Biden coming in this role? You've already seen that Harry Reid has said that Biden will not be invited into the policy luncheons up at the Senate. Biden's already signaled that he's going to be scaling back some of this office, what you've done to this office. What's your advice to Biden?

CHENEY: Well, the most important element in deciding what kind of vice presidency any administration is going to have is what the president wants to have done. He is the boss. He is the one who's got to decide what kind of authority he wants to entrust to his vice president, how he fits with the other folks in the administration, what kinds of policies he wants him involved in and it's really unique for each administration.

I've had one meeting with Joe Biden since he won the election. He and his wife came by the house and we were able to show him the official residence and had a pleasant chat. We didn't get into policy in any major way. But Joe Biden's an experienced senator. He's been around a long time. He knows a lot. Whatever contribution he's allowed to make to the Obama administration is really up to President Obama, he'll decide what his role is going to be.

KARL: What are you going to miss most about this job?

CHENEY: Well, I am looking forward to a return to private life. This is the fourth time I've transitioned out of government to the private sector. But I'll also miss it. It's really been just a tremendously remarkable experience. I think the people that I've been pleased to work with including some of my colleagues in the administration, especially the men and women of our armed forces and the intelligence community who have done so much to keep us safe over this period of time. It's been 40 years since I came to Washington to stay 12 months and I think it's about time I went and did something else.

KARL: Regrets?

CHENEY: Oh, not a lot at this stage. I think I'll have a chance to reflect on that after I get out of here and see whether to – anything immediately comes to mind. I think given the circumstances we've had to deal with, I think we've done pretty well.

My experience goes back, this is the fourth administration I've worked in. Things that were cited as a regret at the time, Jerry Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon, for example, 30 years later look pretty good. So I am cautious in terms of making judgments at this point. A lot of other people can do it. I am not yet out of office and I'll withhold judgment for a while.

KARL: The attacks don't seem to have bothered you but when they make a political ad out of you in the last week of the campaign simply because you've done one event and you know the approval rating, so I understand your position on the polls, but do those attacks on you get to you? Do they bug you?

CHENEY: No. If they didn't I shouldn't take this job. We've talked about how Senator Clinton referred to me as Darth Vader. I asked my wife about that, if that didn't bother her. She said, no, it humanizes you. So it's – you've got to have a sense of humor about it. Don't take it personally. You've got to have a thick skin or you shouldn't be in this business. You can turn on the Jay Leno show or David Letterman on any weekday night and over the course of a week there are likely to be two or three shots fired in my direction. You just, you really can't worry about it. Most of them are pretty funny.

KARL: And then finally, what are you going to do next? What's the final act for …

CHENEY: Well, I don't know yet. I'll say I've got 35 more days to go here with the president and then I'll decide after that. I'm not ready to retire yet but I do want a chance to spend more time with the family. Got some rivers I want to face. Maybe write a book. I haven't decided yet.

So there'll be hopefully plenty of years left to engage in those other activities and my experience has been when you get to one of these major turning points in your life, major milestone where you leave one activity and have to go to something else, on the other side usually are good things. That's always been my experience.