Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has lashed out at Dick Cheney over his newly published memoir, calling an assertion by the former vice president an “attack on my integrity.”
Cheney writes in his book “In My Time” that Rice misled President George W. Bush about negotiations with North Korea over its nuclear program.
"I kept the president fully and completely informed about every in and out of the negotiations with the North Koreans," Rice said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday.
"You can talk about policy differences without suggesting that your colleague somehow misled the president. You know, I don't appreciate the attack on my integrity that that implies."
Rice also disputed a passage in Cheney's memoir in which he says the secretary of state "tearfully admitted" that the Bush administration should not have apologized for a claim in Bush's 2003 State of the Union address on Iraq's supposed search for uranium.
Editor’s Note: Condoleezza rejects Cheney’s attacks in his new book, “In My Time.” Click here to get it FREE (while supplies last).
Cheney argued that no apology should be made for Bush’s inaccurate allegation that Iraq had attempted to obtain yellowcake uranium in Niger. Rice indicated publicly that the White House might have been wrong to use the claim in the speech.
Cheney wrote that later, Rice “came into my office, sat down in the chair next to my desk, and tearfully admitted I had been right."
Rice said in the interview: "It certainly doesn't sound like me, now does it? I would never — I don't remember coming to the vice president tearfully about anything in the entire eight years that I knew him.
"I did say to him that he had been right about the press reaction" to the administration's acknowledgment that the remarks should not have been in Bush's speech, Rice said.
"And so I did say to the vice president, 'you know, you were right about the press reaction.' But I am quite certain that I didn't do it tearfully.”
Rice is the latest former senior Bush aide to fire back at Cheney's memoir. Rice's predecessor as secretary of state, Colin Powell, said on Sunday that Cheney's book levels "cheap shots" at colleagues and mischaracterizes events.
Rice agreed: "I have to say that some of the things that he said about his colleagues are not in keeping with the high respect that I have always had for him. I think they do fall into the category of cheap shots."
Rice’s own memoir is scheduled to be released later this year.
Meanwhile Bush said he “didn’t mind” the squabbles between his former administration officials.
“I’m glad members of my family are giving their version of what it was like to serve the country,” he said on “Fox & Friends” on Thursday.
“I did the same thing.”
He added: “Eventually objective historians will analyze our administration and draw objective conclusions.”
Editor’s Note: Condoleezza rejects Cheney’s attacks in his new book, “In My Time.” Click here to get it FREE (while supplies last).
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