Former Vice President Dick Cheney doesn’t want House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan to run for president.
Cheney told attendees of a KPMG Global Energy Institute event in Houston on Wednesday, “I worship the ground Paul Ryan walks on,” but that “I hope he doesn’t run for president because that would ruin a good man who has a lot of work to do.”
The former vice president addressed a broad range of topics at the event. He said that the inauguration of Barack Obama as the first black president was “tremendously moving,” but that the president possesses “a more radical philosophy than I’m comfortable with.”
Cheney dismissed criticism of his ties to Halliburton, saying that he met with his successor as the company’s CEO only once in his eight years as vice president. He recounted an incident when he told Democratic Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy to “go f*** himself” after Leahy accused him of committing “nefarious deeds” with Halliburton.
Cheney said that after Leahy made the allegations, “Pat came over to me and put his arm around me and treated me like his long-lost brother… At that point I told him what he could do with himself.” He said that after making the statement, senators scurried for the exits.
The former vice president will release a memoir titled “In My Time” later this year.