Elder Bush criticizes Cheney, Rumsfeld in new biography

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a blistering critique, former President George H.W. Bush says onetime Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld "served the president badly" when George W. Bush was in the White House and that former Vice President Dick Cheney "built his own empire" and asserted too much "hard-line" influence.

The critical assessments of Rumsfeld and Cheney — key players in the U.S.-led war in Iraq — are contained in a biography of the nation's 41st president to be published next week.

Jeb Bush, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, said on Thursday that he had not read the book.

Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein "is gone, and with him went a lot of brutality and nastiness and awfulness," Bush said.