On Monday's PoliticsNation, MSNBC host Al Sharpton bizarrely devoted his regular "Nice Try" segment to Dick Cheney denying that he and Wyoming Republican Senator Mike Enzi are "fishing buddies," which the former Vice President did on Sunday's ABC This Week during a discussion of daughter Liz Cheney's bid for the Senate.
As he mocked the former Vice President, Sharpton managed to bring up the Iraq invasion and repeated the false assertion from the left that Cheney had claimed Iraq should be invaded because an Iraqi agent met with one of the 9/11 hijackers. Sharpton: "Is Cheney finally admitting that a 9-1-1 bomber didn't meet with an agent of Saddam Hussein? Cheney used that meeting to justify the Iraq invasion even though it didn't happen."
Sharpton was alluding to a series of edited clips from four interviews the former Vice President gave on NBC's Meet the Press which liberal entities like MSNBC promoted in 2004 to make it appear that Cheney had claimed that Iraq was involved in the 9/11 attacks.
In reality, in each case, Cheney was answering a question from then-host Tim Russert about whether there were links between the 9/11 hijackers and Iraq. The then-Vice President informed viewers that a Czech intelligence agent had claimed that he observed one of the 9/11 hijackers meeting with an Iraqi intelligence agent in Prague, but also noted that there was debate whether the account was true.
MSNBC at the time omitted Cheney's expressions of uncertainty to make it appear that he had characterized the alleged meeting as a fact.
Below is a complete transcript of the "Nice Try" segment from the Monday, October 28, PoliticsNation on MSNBC:
AL SHARPTON: Big news tonight from former Vice President Dick Cheney. He's clearing the air. Coming clean about a huge story. Cheney made the admission over the weekend.
FORMER VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: Just simply not true. Never happened.
SHARPTON: But what's simply not true? What never happened? Is Cheney finally admitting that a 9-1-1 bomber didn't meet with an agent of Saddam Hussein? Cheney used that meeting to justify the Iraq invasion even though it didn't happen. Nope. That's not what he's talking about. Is he trying to tell us that he didn't actually shoot one of his friends in the face? Nope. That definitely happened. Is he saying it's not true, that he criticized how President Obama got bin Laden, the terrorist he couldn't get himself? Nope. The former Vice President was weighing in, in one of the great issues of our time: fishing. That's right, fishing. Take a look.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC'S THIS WEEK: Your daughter Liz running for Senate.
CHENEY: She is.
STEPHANOPOULOS: -and in Wyoming has wrankled a lot of feathers in Washington. Most of the Republican Senators supporting the incumbent, Mike Enzi. He himself said this week that he felt a bit blindsided by your whole family. Said he thought you were his friend. How do you respond to that criticism?
CHENEY: Well, Mike also said he and I are fishing buddies, which is simply not true. Never happened.
SHARPTON: They're not fishing buddies. Not true. Never happened. Well, glad he cleared that up. The whole country was worried about who Cheney goes fishing with. The truth is Cheney doesn't want to talk about things that he really needs to get straight. So he can go on national TV to plug his new book or plug his daughter's campaign, but the American people won't forget what he is refusing to talk about. Mr. Vice President, that wasn't even a nice try, but we still got you.