President Obama defended his administration’s domestic spy program during an interview on PBS’s Charlie Rose show that aired Monday night. Obama drew a line between his administration’s efforts and those of the Bush administration. He also claimed NSA surveillance is actually transparent because requests are submitted to the top-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

President Obama: “It is transparent. That’s why we set up the FISA court. Look, the whole point of my concern, before I was president — because some people say, 'Well, you know, Obama was this raving liberal before. Now he's, you know, Dick Cheney.’ Dick Cheney sometimes says, 'Yeah, you know? He took it all lock, stock and barrel.' My concern has always been not that we shouldn’t do intelligence gathering to prevent terrorism, but rather, are we setting up a system of checks and balances?”