Posted on 02/15/2006 1:52:05 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
In an exclusive interview with Fox News' Brit Hume this afternoon, Vice President Dick Cheney took full responsibility for shooting his hunting companion, who has until now been pictured as the guilty party. The interview will not air in full until 6 p.m., but according to Hume, in summarizing the contents, the vice president remained "totally unapologetic" about the long lag in reporting the shooting to the public -- and also said that he had consumed one beer at lunch that day.
Speaking on camera and disclosing some of the unaired footage, Hume said Cheney was "utterly unapologetic" about the reporting lag but "a shaken man" in his interview. In comments on the cable channel just minutes after ending a 25-minute interview with Cheney, Hume described the encounter as revealing, but with little contrition on Cheney's part.
"He didn’t blame anyone else, he blamed himself [for the shooting]," Hume told Fox's Shepard Smith during a brief conversation. "But he didn't take blame for the way it was handled…the White House press corps be damned."
Hume indicated that Cheney called last Saturday's accidental shooting "one of the worst days of my life," but that the vice president was certain that he handled it correctly by waiting nearly a day to make it public. He also revealed that Cheney disclosed having a beer with lunch that day, but stressed that it was several hours before the shooting occurred.
Ranch owner Katharine Armstrong has said no one hunting that day had any beer. The Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday that it had been told that the hunters that day "broke for a lunch of antelope, jicama salad and camp bread, washed down with Dr. Pepper." Armstrong later modified her remarks, saying there may have been beer in coolers but she didn't think anyone who was hunting that day had any.
"Ultimately I'm the guy who pulled the trigger, that fired the round that hit Harry," Cheney said in his Hume interview. "I'm the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend, and that's something I'll never forget....
"The image of him falling is something I will never be able to get out my mind," Cheney said, somberly. "It was one of the worst days of my life."
After days of White House and other administraton offiicials, and Katharine Armstrong, faulting the victim, Cheney said, "It was not Harry's fault. You cannot blame anybody else."
Whittington was in stable condition on Wednesday, hospital officials said earlier on Wednesday. But the 78-year-old was moved back into the intensive care unit because of concerns for his privacy.
Cheney said he agreed that ranch owner Armstrong should make the story public, because she was an eyewitness, because she grew up on the ranch and because she is "an acknowledged expert in all of this" as a past head of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. He also agreed with her decision to choose the local newspaper as the way to get the news out.
"I thought that made good sense because you can get as accurate a story as possible from somebody who knew and understood hunting and then it would immediately go up to the wires and be posted on the Web site, which is the way it went out and I thought that was the right call," Cheney said.
"What do you think now?" Hume asked.
"I still do," Cheney responded. "The accuracy was enormously important. I had no press person with me."
NBC News called the vice president’s office for comment four times Tuesday and Wednesday, it disclosed today, and asked whether the vice president or anyone in the hunting party had consumed any alcohol on Saturday prior to the accident. In an e-mail statement Wednesday to NBC News, the vice president’s press secretary referred NBC News to the Kenedy County Sheriff’s Department report on the incident, which said it did not believe alcohol use was a factor in the shooting.
At a news conference Wednesday outside Whittington’s hospital in Corpus Christi, reporters asked hospital officials whether Whittington’s blood-alcohol level had been tested. The officials responded with a "no comment."
Really? What was the time line on Vince Foster's Death?
I saw a friend of mine today, who is a lib, and in the background, the story was on the news. I trotted out the joke, "I would still rather hunt with Cheney, than drive with Kennedy". I waited for the flames, instead I got from him "Why in the H*LL is this still a story?, It was an accident, and the networks are just peeved that they called a local paper instead of the New York Times", he then went on for about five minutes about how accidents happen, and how stupid the MSM is.
However, this did not include an injury to the VP, it was to the VP's friend. Taking care that the family is notified before the hyenas of the press desend makes absolute sense to me. If he had announced it to the press immediately, with what was known at the time, they would have said the injuries were superficial. Then later, when problems developed, the media would have been screaming "He LIED!"
Not telling the American people directly and expeditiously was wrong. Do you think the dinner party a few hours after the shooting was part of helping the injured?
Do you think that it took fourteen hours to help the injured?
It isn't Cheney's duty to handle the press, but he does have people whose duty it is to handle the press. Those people understand the nature of the beast that is the media, and it is their job to handle that beast efficiently, not to enrage the beast then point to the beast's behavior as if they are amazed by it.
It's high stakes politics, the highest stakes in the world, and you play your hand smart. You don't do things that may hurt your Party and by extension, hurt the sitting President.
This was not smart.
I also love how we rush to fluff this off...I'm the last individual to ever post anything critical of this administration, when I've disagreed on issues, I've avoided posting my disagreement because division does not help the Party, but this smells of arrogance from the part of the VP, or perhaps the need to wait for the lingering effects of alcohol to dissipate.
This was a stupid, thoughtless political blunder by Cheney's people.
And it was unacceptable.
"Cheney has taken responsibility for the shooting, and also stood by his actions in how the story unfolded. I do not find fault with that, particularly with the openess and directness saying so."
Well I do.
There's a huge amount of arrogance in his reponse as well, in refusing to acknowledge the criticism from his own supporters...his basic attitude is "Yeah...so what?"
Unacceptable.
Do you have proof that Vince Foster was murdered by the Clintons, or that they ordered his death?
If you do, please proceed immediately to your nearest law enforcement agency, and present your case.
And one last thing...I expect this administration to behave differently than the Clintons, so "they did it too" as an excuse does not play well with me.
I did not vote for Bush/Cheney with the idea that we were sending our own version of the Clintons to the White House.
Fourteen hours to notify the family?
What the hell did they use to send the message?
The Pony Express?
But she shouldn't have blamed Whittington for getting hit. That is the main talking point all the Cheney haters are attributing to all Republicans. It was a stupid remark. She should have just stuck to the facts instead of trying to make Cheney look good.
How do you define expeditiously and why do the American people need to be notified immediately? Is this really that important? Where do you draw the line? If Cheney had dropped the rifle on the guy's foot and broke his ankle, would you expect that to be reported "directly and expeditiously?"
The person who reported the incident to the press was an eyewitness. No matter what the WH said or when, the press assisted by their alter ego, the Dems, would still have had a feeding frenzy. This is just another pretext to attack Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc. No matter what Cheney did, the same attacks would still have gone on. This is another tempest in a teapot.
The PETA folks are now demonstrating outside the hospital decrying the murdering of innocent quail. The patient has been moved to the ICU for privacy reasons.
Cheney said that the decision to hold up on reporting this was his, as he wanted the family to be notified first. Worthington's children are grown, so 14 hours isn't unreasonable to find a group of adults who might be scattered around the country.
Cheney also said that he didn't have any press people with him, the press people at the White House wanted to go ahead with the release but he overruled them because of notification of family and also because they weren't sure of Harry's condition.
Now, it may be they could have released this a bit earlier, but SO WHAT? He came on TV and told the truth, explained everything that happened, and that's it.
Except, of course, that with the media telling the truth and explaining everything isn't enough. Chris Matthews is apparently wanting MORE questions answered personally by the Veep, and the press is still attacking.
If Cheney had gone to the press right after this happened, the only difference would have been that the press would have staked out the ranch and the hospital on Sunday and we would have had to endure this frenzy over the weekend.
Sometimes people aren't sitting around waiting for the phone to ring. His children and grandchildren are adults and scattered (just like most American families)
This thing is so over. Cheney explained everthing to Brit. Whittington will no doubt make a complete recovery. WH Press Corps be damned. He owes nothing to them.
I mean, do we need to know every detail of the POTUS' or VPOTUS' life? Cr@p! These presstitutes need to get a life!
Do you also think we didn't have the right to know about Clinton and Monica Lewinsky?
No, nor did I claim that is what happened.
Do you know how many hours after Vince was discovered until his death was reported on the major news networks?
It doesn't matter. The VP has taken responsibility for the incident. He had no obligation to call the major media, and they are pretty arrogant to claim that he should have. Nothing about this incident had anything to do with the White House, so that gaggle needn't have been notified. The VP's point was that, though Mr. Whittington's wife was there, and accompanied him to the hospital, they were concerned about reporting the incident to the media since the Whittington's children, though grown, had NOT been notified, and he didn't want them to learn of it from the TV, and you know that if it had made the media, THEY would have found out who the victim was and splashed his name all over everywhere.
The person who reported the incident to the press was not an eyewitness. Ms. Armstrong said she was in the car when it happened, and when she saw the doctors gathered around someone she first thought Cheney had a heart attack. When she left the car and got to where everyone was, she saw that Whittington had been shot.
Isn't the order of succession established by law? I don't think the President gets to choose does he? Just asking, I don't expect the VP to resign and I hope he doesn't.
I do not believe Cheney or his staff made a mistake, to the contrary, under the circumstances, I believe they balanced the need to help the injured, inform his family, and get the story out in as expedient a way as possible which minimized the exposure while accomplishing the good I mentioned in a very good and professional way. It did torque the MSM...but they would be attacking in any case...and in this instance they are sucking air and making themselves look foolish (IMHO) while so doing.
But that's just my opinion.
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