In an interview to air tonight on Fox News, former Vice President Dick Cheney tries to clarify what he told me 10 days ago about Sarah Palin.

In our interview, Cheney said John McCain's decision to pick Sarah Palin as his running was "a mistake" because, he said, Palin did not pass the test of being ready to be president.

WATCH:

CHENEY: "I like Governor Palin. I've met her. I know her. She is an attractive candidate. But based on her background - she'd only been governor for, what, two years - I don't think she passed that test -"

KARL: "Of being ready -"

CHENEY: "- of being ready to take over. And I think that was a mistake."

Now Cheney tells Sean Hannity he was talking about the "process" McCain went through in choosing a running mate.

"It wasn't aimed so much at Gov. Palin as it was against the basic process that McCain used," Cheney said. "My point basically dealt with the process in terms of that basic requirement, is this person prepared to step in to be president of the United States when they're picked? And it was my judgment - I was asked if I thought the McCain process in '08 had been well done or was it a mistake, and I said I thought it was a mistake. That's not…meant so much as a criticism of Gov. Palin as it is that I just thought it was not - the process didn't meet the standards I would like to see our candidate pursue when they pick a - a running mate."

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