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."
Armstrong is partially the reason this story has been so farked up. Cheney's decision to leave it to her was obviously flawed.
Thank God the Clintons are gone. They would have put on a production with a cast of extras larger than Ben Hur.
Cheney is a good man, a good friend, and a guy who knows that even though he is the second most powerful man in the solar system ... when he is a guest in someone's home, he is just a guest.
They wanted to, but had to abandon the project after many tries because there was no IQ testing room with a door wide enough for Gregory to get his friggin' head through the door!
bttt
If Democrats and the press ridicule Cheney enough, would it be good strategery of Mr. Bush to accept Dick Cheney's resignation and have the republican senate majority annoint Bush's chosen successor like Bill Frist or George Allen or Condi Rice successor. The new VP could run with the vice presidential privileges andvisibility, but with out the baggage of the Iraqi war and the neocons. Is Karl Rove thinking this? A Condi Rice VP would drive the Demos nuts!
Yep! And when he got to a phone he didn't call an ambulance, or the police, or a rescue team, or the press. He called lawyers and political spin doctors!
I am with you, they have behaved like zoo animals.
God Bless Mr. Whittington and the Vice President as they both need it.
Just a little side note: The articles being written about this don't show any care or concern for Whittington. He wasn't even mentioned by name until the 8th paragraph and I have seen reports where they don't use his name at all.
If this had been VP Al Gore, the press and family would be pleading for privacy and letting Gore have the space to deal with the incident.
Good show. He owes an apology to Whittington, and I'm sure he's already delivered a heart-felt one.
He owes nothing to the scribblers. He didn't shoot them.
That is so true.
Quick, while we have the MSM's attention...can we start breathalyzing/hair folicle testing members of Congress, and maybe the Old Media?
Just heard VP Cheney speaking on the FOX top-of-the-hour news. He sounded tired and remorseful, but still in control...And I love him all the more!
Time for e-mails to our Second in Command?
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
I'm glad Brit got the scoop. :)
And FWIW, the White House HAS been posting releases from the VP's office concerning this matter, since February 13th!
http://www.whitehouse.gov/vicepresident/
Of course, why a REPORTER, ANY reporter would think to look there escapes me. *Scratches Head*
Perhaps someone should be asking David Gregory if he's had his rabies shots lately.
Just excoriating the Vice President as is their usual way.
"even if Cheney had called David Gregory on his cell phone five minutes after the accident."
Bwahhaaaaa. Rofl
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