Dick Cheney, who has been slowly re-entering political life since undergoing heart transplant surgery in March, will sit down today for his first network television interview this year.
Jonathan Karl of ABC News will conduct the interview from Jackson Hole, Wyo., where the former vice president has a home. Portions of the interview will air first on Sunday on ABC's public affairs program “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.†And ABC will use other segments from their exclusive sit-down with Mr. Cheney on Monday during their three major news broadcasts, “Good Morning America,†“World News with Diane Sawyer†and “Nightline.â€
Why Mr. Cheney agreed to talk now and what he might have to say is unclear. ABC News has had a standing request to interview him for some time, and learned about a week ago that the former vice president would make himself available.
Mr. Cheney has had a tense relationship with the news media, particularly during the final years of the Bush administration. It's not often that he grants major network television interviews. And when he does, he has often chosen to speak through his network of choice, Fox News. (Though he did sit down for an hourlong discussion televised on CSPAN a few weeks after his heart transplant.)
Mr. Cheney has granted interviews to Mr. Karl of ABC News before, speaking to him after the killing of Osama bin Laden last year and once in 2010.
He has surfaced intermittently this year, weighing in with his feelings about the Obama presidency (“an unmitigated disaster†as he called it at a gathering of Wyoming Republicans in April. And two weeks ago he held a $30,000-per-plate fundraiser
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