Two senior administration officials told me his wife suggested sending Wilson to Niger to investigate the Italian report. The CIA says its counter-proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him.

[Early that week, someone in the administration told syndicated newspaper columnist Robert Novak that Wilson's CIA operative wife had instigated his trip to Niger.] I didn't dig it out; it was given to me, ... They thought it was significant.

[Cheney told NBC on Sept. 14, 2003, that he didn't know who sent Wilson on a mission to Niger to explore claims that Iraq was seeking nuclear material.] He never submitted a report that I ever saw when he came back, ... I don't know Mr. Wilson. I probably shouldn't judge him. I have no idea who hired him.

Bob Novak called me before he went to print with the report and he said a CIA source had told him that my wife was an operative, ... He was trying to get a second source. He couldn't get a second source. Could I confirm that? And I said no.

The problem was that it was very difficult to deal with the special prosecutor's investigation of the CIA leak. While it was going on we decided not to put me on the air. After the Libby indictment they extended the prosecutor's term, so I never went back on the air.

I told 'E' before the game that I'm going to look to you as much as possible. He's a senior. He deserved for us to just focus on him and let him do whatever he wanted to do. He plays hard and practices hard. We just wanted to get him the ball.