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."
Reemphasizing that the delay in reporting was HIS DECISION still believes it was the right call
Believes NO APOLOGY to the WH Press corps is in order.
EXACTLY everything I wanted to hear!!!!
This should CLOSE the maniacal MSM's handling of this!!
NOT!!!!
Save the spin for someone else.
I know exactly when the press was notified, how it was notified, and by whom.
Not acceptable.
The instant that McClellan finds out that Cheney was the shooter, he advises them to make the information public quickly, instead, the news is given to some paper in Corpus Christi by the ranch's owner.
McClellan knew that not telling the WH press expeditiously was a mistake.
I'll bet you anything that tough old boy had one can of beer with his camp lunch just like the Veep did. He's doesn't look like a Dr. Pepper sort of guy.
Leni
The article fails to mention that Cheney said that they had to wait to release the info until after the victim's family members had been notified and until they knew what exactly the man's condition was.
I'm so sick and tired of this whole thing, I'm not even going to watch Cheney with Brit today....
"The rest is a non-issue. Just like the "slow response" to Katrina. They build a straw man, repeat it enough, then no one ever questions the original assumption."
Exactly. I've already read countless comments by Dems that involve the word "secretive". Secretive? Are they kidding? But they'll say it over and over again, and weeks from now it will become accepted fact that the WH was "secretive" about the incident.
Bottom line here is the WH press corps didn't like getting scooped and now they are taking their revenge. It's absolutely disgusting.
Bravo Sierra. I don't "NEED" to know anything the Veep is doing in his free time.
The Vice President travels with a damn police force, aka SECRET SERVICE, that notified the LOCAL police within a short time of the incident. He also travels with a medical team and an ambulance.
The story was reported to the LOCAL paper. If the stinking WH press core were doing THEIR jobs, they would have been in the vicinity.
Are you a member of the WH press? I LOATHE the media!
I don't care what the MSM would have done with the story, I have a right to know when my VP is involved in a shooting incident.
By deciding that it was not important to tell the MSM, he also decided that we weren't important enough to be told either.
Not surprising at all, the "no comment" from the officials about Whittington. It'd have been entirely inappropriate to disclose medical information about him.
"The article fails to mention that Cheney said that they had to wait to release the info until after the victim's family members had been notified and until they knew what exactly the man's condition was."
Shhh!!! No, that wasn't the reason, it was a WH coverup of monumental proportions! Cheney figured if he waited one night to release the news, one would ever find out...imagine his shock that it has now become NATIONAL NEWS! I'm sure he didn't see that coming...
tne shooting took place shortly before 7 P.M., the local media was first called at 9:00 A.M. the next morning. Which coincidentally was the time that Cheney was going to speak to local law enforcement officials.
Save the spin for others.
" I don't "NEED" to know anything the Veep is doing in his free time."
I do.
He got my money, my support, my vote and my time when he needed them.
I want to know.
I wonder what Hillary's blood alcohol level was when she had to dance with Bill on the beach for a photo-op? It's those little details that make a story interesting, dontchaknow?
What does your tag line mean?
I understand you being sick and tired of the whole thing, however, why would you not watch the only honest, true thing about the incident in 3 days?
I have watched nothing, but will not miss the Veep on Brit.
"not telling the press amounted to not telling the citizens."
And not knowing for that 20 or so hours really has had a substantial impact on MY life...he was thinking of his friend, and his friend's family, as he should. Yes, the public had a right to know but that needed to be balanced with what was best for the actual people affected.
I don't think it was a mistake Luis. Telling the local media makes more sense. They have access to the AP wire, they are experienced in hunting and the area, and at the time, it was thought to be a minor incident.
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