President Obama is receiving support from a most unexpected source.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney said that he considers the drone program to be good policy, and seemed unconcerned with the fact that there have been limited checks on the executive branch's ability to target American citizens in extrajudicial killings.
The comments came during an interview with CBS This Morning on Tuesday.
"It's a good program. And I don't disagree with the basic policy that the Obama administration has pursued in that regard," he said.
After Cheney affirmed that he was okay with the United States lethally targeting American citizens like Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, CBS reporter Charlie Rose asked, "Should there be checks and balances in terms of that?"
"I think when we hire the President of the United States, he gets to live in the big house; makes all that money; he is getting paid to make difficult, difficult decisions," said Cheney.
The Obama administration has come under fire during the last week after a Justice Department memo surfaced detailing the executive branch's thought process regarding extrajudicial killings. The document outlined three conditions under which an unmanned drone strike could be ordered against a U.S. citizen, but then proceeded to undermine the language of each condition.
Notable, the government believes that it does not need "clear evidence" of a citizen's involvement in a terrorist plot before killing them, and its idea of a "imminent" danger is mostly circumstantial.
Cheney's support for a less than transparent policy may not be surprising considering the actions of the administration he served under President George W. Bush, which went to great lengths to keep its enhanced interrogation program secret.
Obama supporters worried that Cheney is suddenly warming up to their leader can take heart, though. He thinks the rest of the president's policies are weakening America, and that Obama is surrounding himself with below average policy makers.
"The performance now of Barack Obama as he staffs up the national security team for the second term is dismal," he said in a speech to the Wyoming Republican Party. "Frankly, what he has appointed are second-rate people."
Reaffirming his claims on CBS, Cheney said Obama's mission was to "to reduce U.S. influence in the world."
