Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday night criticized President Obama for not finding a way to destroy the downed U.S. drone in Iran.
"The right response to that would have been to go in immediately after it had gone down and destroy it," he said on CNN's "Out Front With Erin Burnett."
Instead, Cheney said, "he asked nicely for them to return it. They aren't gonna do that. ... Or, they'll send it back to us in pieces after they've gotten all the intelligence out of it they can."
Iran claimed to have taken down an American spy drone earlier this month. Obama said Monday the U.S. has "asked for it back."
Obama refused to comment further on classified intelligence matters. "We’ll see how the Iranians respond," he said during a press conference.
Cheney, who served with former President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009, said he "was told the president had three options on his desk and he rejected all of them." The options all involved destroying the drone on the ground.
"You can do that from the air," he said, "and, in effect, make it impossible for them to benefit from having captured that drone."
