Former Bush adviser: Biden 'got it wrong' on Iran, Obama administration doesn't need to 'rewrite history'

Is Biden the real 'problem'?

Vice president's blaming the US and Bush administration for previous lack of international pressure on Iran continues to spark outrage

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," May 9, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: And now Senator John McCain blasting Vice President Joe Biden. Yesterday the vice president blamed the Bush administration for the United States rocky dealings with Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: When we took office let me remind you there was virtually no international pressure on Iran. We were the problem. We were diplomatically isolated in the world, in the region, in Europe. The international pressure on Iran was stuck in neutral.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAN SUSTEREN: Stephen Hadley is a former international security adviser for President George W. Bush and he joins me.

STEPHEN HADLEY, FORMER BUSH INTERNATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Nice to be here.

VAN SUSTEREN: The vice president said when they took office virtually no international pressure on Iran.

HADLEY: Look, I have a lot of respect for the vice president. I like him. On this one he has just got it wrong. The United States was leading. The institutions that they are using now were actually forged and put together in the Bush administration. We worked through the IAEA board of governors. This is the International Atomic Energy Agency. We got the over 40 members of that group to routinely condemn Iran, call for the suspension of its enrichment. We worked for the U.N. Security Council. We got three U.N. Security Council resolutions on Iran sanctions, one of them after that very difficult 2007 national intelligence estimate that said Iran had stopped their weaponization or suspended their weaponization activities. We were able to put the consensus back together.

This P5 plus one, the permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany that is going to be meeting with the Iranians, this was the creation of the Bush administration. Secretary Paulson went around to the banks in Europe and said you ought not to deal with the Iranian agent banks because they are likely to be laundering money to terror and to proliferation.

Stewart Levy, the poster child for the sanctions effort, was a Bush administration appointee kept on by the Obama administration.

So, look, the truth is we left them tools. I have been the first to say they have done a good job with those tools. They have gotten a lot of mileage out of the sanctions. They can take credit for that. They don't need to rewrite history and tell the world and tell the country they weren't left with anything. It is simply not true.

VAN SUSTEREN: I don't think they were telling the world. This was a meeting of 1600 rabbis and I think this was a statement because the administration really wants to look like it is walking hand in hand with Israel and I think it was trying to make itself, and trying to distinguish itself, and falsely. And vice president Biden knows what the United States was doing for foreign policy. I think this was a political statement and I would think that he would regret saying that and blaming us as the problem. I bet tonight he regrets saying that. Or at least I would hope he would.

HADLEY: I would hope so. There are a lot of problems that we worked on that they have worked on as well. There is no doubt about that. We tried to leave them a lot tools to deal with those problem for criminal. I think they can be gracious and acknowledge it even though they can then say the good things they have done with the tools and how they have gone past what the Bush administration did.

You know, there is a little best kept secret in Washington is that every administration that comes in on foreign policy does not write on a blank sheet of paper, that there is actually a lot of continuity in policy in foreign policy between administrations. That is not a bad thing. That's a good thing. And I think the administration ought to be gracious about it, acknowledge it, and stop bashing the former president, especially since the former president has made it very clear he is not to criticize the Obama administration. I think the Obama administration should start giving him the same courtesy.

VAN SUSTEREN: And especially something so serious as Iran. Iran shouldn't be part of the political --

HADLEY: Should not.

VAN SUSTEREN: Should not. Nice to see you.

HADLEY: Nice to be here.