In a bit of advice that may be best taken with a shaker of salt, former Vice President Dick Cheney urged his successor to challenge Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic nomination.
In an interview with CNN’s “New Day” to promote a new book he wrote with his daughter, Liz, the former Republican veep was eager to offer Biden his encouragement. Biden, who has been considering a presidential run for months, plans to make a final decision in the next six weeks.
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“I’d love to see Joe get in the race,” Cheney said. “Go for it, Joe. He’s tried twice before — he obviously is interested. I think there’s a lot of support for him in the Democratic Party. I think it would stir things up. They’re short candidates on their side, so I’d urge Joe to have a shot at it.”
Liz Cheney, sitting beside her father, chuckled. “My bet is Joe’s going to run,” Cheney added. The former vice president also criticized Clinton’s handing of the controversy over the private email server she used as secretary of state. “I think it was sloppy and unprofessional,” Cheney said, adding that Clinton should have known better than to use the server. “I found it surprising that somebody as high-ranking as secretary of state who’s dealing with classified and sensitive information all the time would think that it was OK to have a private server in your home.” The former vice president added that he thought the Russians and Chinese probably had access to Clinton emails, since China has been blamed for a massive hack of government personnel records.
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