Joe Biden Blasts Dick Cheney: Cheney Is Either Misinformed or He is Misinforming

From Meet The Press -- February 14, 2010:

DAVID GREGORY: 'Let me ask you about some of the criticism that's been leveled at this Administration by former Vice President Dick Cheney.' ...

VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: 'Let me choose my words carefully here. Dick Cheney's a fine fellow. He's entitled to his own opinion. He's not entitled to rewrite history. He's not entitled to his own facts. The Christmas Day Bomber was treated the exact way that he suggested that the Shoe Bomber was treated. Absolutely the same way. Under Bush, three Al Quaida operatives were tried in military tribunals and two of them are now out walking the streets. Over three hundred were tried in federal courts and they are now still in prison. ... Dick Cheney's a fine fellow, but he is not entitled to rewrite history without it being challenged. I don't know where he has been. Where was he the last four years of the Bush administration?'

GREGORY: 'What about the general proposition that the President according to former Vice President Cheney doesn't consider America to be at war and is essentially soft on terrorism?' ...

BIDEN: 'I don't think ... former Vice President Dick Cheney listens. The President of the United States said in the State of the Union, 'We're at war with Al Qaeda.' He stated this--- and by the way, we're pursuing that war with a vigor like it's never been seen before. We've eliminated 12 of their top 20 people. We have taken out 100 of their associates. ... [W]e've sent them underground. They are in fact not able to do anything remotely like they were in the past. They are on the run. I don't know where Dick Cheney has been. Look, it's one thing ... to criticize. It's another thing to sort of rewrite history. What is he talking about? ... I'm not gonna guess about his motive. All I know is he's factually, substantively wrong. On the major criticisms he is asserting. ...

'He either is misinformed or he is misinforming. But the facts are that his assertions are not accurate. ... [L]ook, it's one thing to be outspoken. It's another thing to be outspoken in a way that misrepresents the facts. ... [I]t's almost like Dick is trying to rewrite history. I can understand ... why that would be ... an impulse. And maybe he isn't-- literally, I'm not being facetious: Maybe he's not fully informed of what's going on. I mean, the progress we have made. There has never been as much emphasis and resources brought against Al Qaeda. The success rate exceeds anything that occurred in the last administration. And they did their best. I'm not impugning their effort. It's simply not true that the president of the United States is not prosecuting the war against Al Qaeda with a vigor that's never been seen before. It's real. It's deep. It's successful.'