Former Vice President Dick Cheney sent mild shockwaves through the political arena Monday, when he offered his support for same-sex marriage, albeit standing by the current state-by-state decision making process. He also admitted that there was never any tie between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and the terrorist attacks of September 11th.
"I think, you know, freedom means freedom for everyone," Cheney said in a speech at the National Press Club Monday. "I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish, any kind of arrangement they wish."
Cheney has famously dodged the issue in the past. It is a personal one for the former VP, whose daughter Mary is a lesbian. In a well-known 2007 interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Cheney became visibly upset when he was questioned about his daughter's pregnancy.
"Frankly, you're out of line with that question," he told Blitzer when he questioned the political backlash to gay couples having children.
On Monday, Cheney said that while his personal belief is that people should be allowed to enter any sort of union they wish, the decision is ultimately up to the states.
"Different states will make different decisions. But I don't have any problem with that. I think people ought to get a shot at that," he said.
In a separate interview with FOX's Greta Van Susteren, Cheney backed that view that goes against what many members of the Republican Party believe. It should not be a federal issue, Cheney said, stopping just short of giving his full endorsement to gay marriage.
Van Susteren asked whether or not Cheney would vote in favor of same sex marriage, if it came down to a vote in his state.
"Well, I look at it, obviously, in personal terms," Cheney replied. "And my daughter, Mary, is in a -- you know, I think a very commendable relationship with somebody she's known for a long time, and I'm strongly supportive of that."
In the interview, Cheney also addressed issues like waterboarding and the invasion of Iraq. He called on President Barack Obama to release the results from the reports that summarize the interrogation program, to show what "we accomplished as a result of that."
"The fact is, the president's the ultimate authority on classification and declassification. He can declassify those things at the stroke of a pen. It's totally within his prerogative to do so, and he, in fact, had to do that when he released the legal memos earlier," Cheney said. "I'm sure those were subject to the same kind of limitation, that they were a part of ongoing litigation. But he could with the stroke of a pen declassify what I'm asking for tonight."
Cheney went onto state that there was "never any evidence" that Saddam Hussein's Iraq played any role in the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks, despite widespread public perception that the invasion of Iraq was related.
"On the question of whether or not Iraq was involved in 9/11, there was never any evidence to prove that," Cheney said. "There was some reporting early on, for example, that Mohammed Atta had met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official. But that was never borne out."
However, Cheney repeated his stance that Hussein had ties with Al Quaeda.
"I do not believe and have never seen any evidence to confirm that" the Iraqi dictator "was involved in 9/11," Cheney told the Press Club. "We had that reporting for a while…eventually it turned out not to be true."
However, Saddam was "somebody who provided sanctuary and safe harbor and resources to terrorists, adding that it is "without question, a fact."
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May 15, 2026 15:25 ET Apart from the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair, the main news on the economics front this week included key price data from the U.S. and the first quarter economic growth figures from major economies. Both consumer prices and producer costs have started to reflect the effect of supply shocks due to the Middle East conflict. In Europe, GDP data was in focus, while inflation data from China dominated the news flow in Asia.