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Remembering former Vice President Dick Cheney's life and legacy · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: Now let's take a look back at the life and
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  Speaker 1: legacy of the former Vice President Dick Cheney.
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  Speaker 2: So help me God, congratulations.
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  Speaker 1: He was one of the most polarizing political figures in
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  Speaker 1: recent memory. A hero and patriot to conservatives, a villain
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  Speaker 1: to liberals. Serving under four different presidents. In his last job,
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  Speaker 1: Dick Cheney became arguably the most influential vice president in
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  Speaker 1: American history. He was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, January of
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  Speaker 1: nineteen forty one, into a family of five that would
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  Speaker 1: establish strong roots in Wyoming during Dick's high school years after,
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  Speaker 1: Cheney flunked out of Yale. As he would put it,
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  Speaker 1: he finished both a bachelor's and master's degree in political
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  Speaker 1: science at the University of Wyoming. But before he finished
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  Speaker 1: his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin, Cheney won a
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  Speaker 1: Capitol Hill Fellowship and headed to Washington with his new bride,
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  Speaker 1: Lynn Vincent on his arm. It wasn't long before former
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  Speaker 1: Illinois Congressman Donald Rumsfelt would recruit Cheney to work in
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  Speaker 1: the Nixon administration. Cheney quickly rose in the ranks, following
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  Speaker 1: Rumsfeld to the White House as Deputy council Then, at
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  Speaker 1: thirty four years old, he became President Gerald Ford's chief
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  Speaker 1: of staff.
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  Speaker 2: I watched him in summit meetings, during intense discussions in
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  Speaker 2: the cabinet room and the situation room, and throughout the exhausting,
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  Speaker 2: gallant effort of the nineteen seventy six campaign.
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  Speaker 1: After serving as campaign manager for Ford's failed re election bid,
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  Speaker 1: Cheney went home to Wyoming. He returned to Washington in
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  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight as the representative from the Equality state,
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  Speaker 1: winning re election five times and making his name as
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  Speaker 1: a no nonsense ultra conservative who fought fair but ruthlessly.
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  Speaker 2: The notion that somehow I was out of saink or
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  Speaker 2: out of step with the party simplism true.
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  Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty nine, Cheney was named Secretary of Defense
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  Speaker 1: by President George H. W. Bush. While Cheney essentially had
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  Speaker 1: no military experience and five draft to ferments during Vietnam,
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  Speaker 1: he relished the opportunity to run the Pentagon. It was
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  Speaker 1: Cheney who pushed hard for aggressive action against Iraq when
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  Speaker 1: Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in nineteen ninety.
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  Speaker 2: When war came, America was ready and Secretary Cheney's leadership
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  Speaker 2: contributed enormously to the victory.
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  Speaker 1: But following combat operations, there was constant debate as to
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  Speaker 1: whether President George H. W. Bush and Defense Secretary of
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  Speaker 1: Cheney pulled out US troops too soon.
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  Speaker 2: How many additional American lives is Saddam Hussein worth? The
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  Speaker 2: answer not very damn many.
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  Speaker 1: Cheney left the White House in nineteen ninety two when
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  Speaker 1: Bill Clinton defeated President Bush, but he remained relevant as
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  Speaker 1: a Republican voice. Choosing to stay in the private sector.
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  Speaker 1: Channing nearly doubled revenues at energy heavyweight Halliburton as the
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  Speaker 1: company's CEO, but later during the Second Iraq War, questions
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  Speaker 1: of transparency and favoritism involving that company filled news stories
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  Speaker 1: and sparked hearings on Capitol Hill. Cheney resigned from Halliburton
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  Speaker 1: when he became the vice presidential candidate alongside George W.
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  Speaker 1: Bush in two thousand. Cheney actually ran the search for
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  Speaker 1: a vice president for George Bush, but in the end,
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  Speaker 1: Bush chose Cheney for the job. In one of the
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  Speaker 1: most arduous and complicated elections ever, Bush and Cheney defeated
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  Speaker 1: Al Gore and running mate Joe Lieberman when the US
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  Speaker 1: Supreme Court ruled five weeks after the election to cease
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  Speaker 1: recounts in Florida.
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  Speaker 2: We will always understand the pain of their families, and
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  Speaker 2: our nation will forever look with reverence upon their place,
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  Speaker 2: this place where their lives ended.
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  Speaker 1: Cheney's leadership was put to the test less than a
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  Speaker 1: year later, nine to eleven, with America under attack and
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  Speaker 1: President Bush in Florida. The Vice President was forced into
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  Speaker 1: the White House bunker, taking the lead in Washington, helping
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  Speaker 1: make the call to shoot down any aircraft deemed a
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  Speaker 1: threat in American airspace. Vice President Cheney was a key
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  Speaker 1: player in the White House's war on terror campaign. In
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  Speaker 1: the prism of post nine to eleven, and after unheeded
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  Speaker 1: warnings to A Rock's leader, Saddam Hussein, President Bush ordered
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  Speaker 1: the launch of Operation of Rocky Freedom in two thousand
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  Speaker 1: and three. Six and ten Americans say they feel it
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  Speaker 1: was a mistake to go to war. What do you
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  Speaker 1: say to those people.
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  Speaker 2: We were elected to do a job and to do
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  Speaker 2: what we think's right for the country.
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  Speaker 1: The Bush White House had asserted that a Rock had
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  Speaker 1: weapons of mass destruction, claim many of those officials would
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  Speaker 1: later retract when the weapons were never found. Bush and
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  Speaker 1: Cheney won reelection against Senators John Kerry and John Edwards.
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  Speaker 1: In two thousand and five, Chaney found himself at the
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  Speaker 1: heart of the CIA League scandal involving Operative Valerie Plane.
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  Speaker 1: His chief of staff, Scooter Libby, was charged with lying
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  Speaker 1: to FBI investigators in the investigation of whom released Plame's
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  Speaker 1: name to a journalist as possible retribution for criticism of
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  Speaker 1: a ROCK policy by Plame's ambassador husband. Vice President Cheney
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  Speaker 1: was never charged in connection with the leak, and two
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  Speaker 1: civil suits against him were dismissed. In two thousand and six,
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  Speaker 1: Vice President Cheney accidentally shot his friend Henry Whittington in
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  Speaker 1: the face neck in Torso with pellets during a quail
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  Speaker 1: hunting trip. Whittington suffered a minor heart attack and spent
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  Speaker 1: six days in the hospital.
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  Speaker 2: But you can't blame anybody else. I'm the guy who
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  Speaker 2: pulled the trigger and trap my friend.
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  Speaker 1: Cheney ended his second term as one of the least
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  Speaker 1: popular politicians in American history. Still, he remained outspoken, taking
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  Speaker 1: the Obama administration to task on national security issues like
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  Speaker 1: the proposed closing of Guantano Obeyed Detention Center and the
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  Speaker 1: use of enhanced interrogation techniques against detainees by twenty ten,
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  Speaker 1: Dick Cheney had survived five heart attacks. In twenty twelve,
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  Speaker 1: Cheney underwent a heart transplant. His doctor pronounced him healthy
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  Speaker 1: and gave him at least another decade to live time.
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  Speaker 1: Cheney used to continue as an outspoken foreign policy hawk
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  Speaker 1: in Washington, Channing confronted Vice President Mike Pence had a
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  Speaker 1: Conservative retreat questioning President Trump's tactics on NATO and North Korea.
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  Speaker 1: Cheney's daughter, Liz, continued the Vice president's legacy in Congress,
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  Speaker 1: winning her father's old seat in twenty seventeen and moving
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  Speaker 1: up the ranks of GOP leadership with her still influential
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  Speaker 1: father looking on. But after Liz's continued vocal criticism of
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  Speaker 1: President Donald Trump, the Republican Party closed ranks and she
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  Speaker 1: lost her re election bid.
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  Speaker 2: Lynn and I are so proud of Liz for standing
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  Speaker 2: up for the truth, doing what's right.
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  Speaker 1: Dick Cheney was typecast as aloof and accused of being
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  Speaker 1: calculating and deceptive. Friends called him quietly funny and dry,
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  Speaker 1: but determined. As Defense Secretary and then arguably the most
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  Speaker 1: powerful Vice president in the history of the Republic, Cheney
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  Speaker 1: helped lead the country through three wars and the worst
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  Speaker 1: attack on the U. S. Homeland in Washington. Brett Baer
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  Speaker 1: Fox News, I'm Steve Doocy, I'm Brian Kilney, and it
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