Cheney: 'I'm the Guy Who Pulled the Trigger'
By Jane Roh
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
NEW YORK — Vice President Dick Cheney told FOX News on Wednesday that he alone is responsible for a weekend hunting accident in which he shot Austin attorney Harry Whittington.
"Ultimately I'm the guy who pulled the trigger that fired the round that hit Harry," Cheney said in his first interview since the incident. "I'm the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend, and that's something I'll never forget."
Cheney's first public response following the shooting comes more than 72 hours after the accident. His silence has been met with bewilderment and anger by some in Washington, D.C. But on Wednesday, the vice president seemed to express deep remorse.
"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."
Whittington, whom Cheney described as an acquaintance whom he's known for more than 30 years, was hit with more than 200 birdshot pellets from an estimated 30 yards away. The accident took place at Armstrong Ranch, a 50,000-acre property in south Texas that is known as one of the best quail-hunting sites in the state. Not aware that his hunting partner had returned from retrieving a bird he had shot, Cheney turned right to shoot a covey of quail and instead sprayed Whittington with pellets from the 28-gauge shotgun.
Earlier this week, the White House and Katharine Armstrong, the owner of the ranch and an eyewitness to the accident, implied that Whittington did not follow hunting protocol because he didn't announce to Cheney and the other hunter that he had returned from retrieving his kill. On Wednesday, the vice president made clear that Whittington wasn't responsible for being hit.
"It was not Harry's fault," Cheney said. "You cannot blame anybody else."
One thing for which Cheney was not apologetic was the way the news of the shooting was delivered to the media. Armstrong, a private citizen, went to a local newspaper about the incident on Sunday. The Corpus Christi Caller-Times published the story near 3 p.m. EST Sunday. The scoop upset many in the White House press corps, who were not with Cheney on the private retreat.
Before Wednesday's interview, the vice president's office issued two brief written statements acknowledging the shooting on Monday and Tuesday. Cheney said he and Armstrong agreed to let her take the lead.
"I thought that made good sense because you can get as accurate a story as possible from somebody who knows and understands hunting," Cheney said. "Then it would immediately go up to the wires and be posted on the Web site, which is the way it went out. I thought that was the right call. I still do."
Whittington suffered a minor heart attack Tuesday morning due to a birdshot pellet that had migrated to his heart. Whittington was in stable condition on Wednesday, hospital officials said. But the 78-year-old was moved back into the intensive care unit because of concerns for his privacy.
"He's doing extremely well," said Peter Banko, administrator of Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Speaking to reporters alongside Dr. David Blanchard, director of emergency services, Banko said that Whittington was tired but able to sit up and eat food. Banko would not comment on how many BBs remained in Whittington's body, but said of the ammunition lodged in Whittington's heart, "We're 100 percent satisfied that where the BB is it will remain."
Blanchard said Whittington was recovering well from the heart attack but would be closely monitored over the next six days and possibly longer. Whittington is "hemodynamically stable," meaning his blood circulation is normal, which is "the best situation you could possibly have."
When asked if their patient would be tuning in to the vice president's first on-air interview about the shooting, Banko said, "There is no television in his room at this point in time."
Cheney, Media Agree: Not Funny
While the story has launched innumerable jokes from comic strips and late-night comedy shows, the narrative took a decidedly more somber tone Tuesday when Whittington's condition turned for the worse.
The timing demonstrated another instance of disconnect between the White House press office and the news of the day. McClellan was not notified about Whittington's heart attack until long after the fact, too late for him to withhold a joke he made during the morning press report about a "hunter's" orange tie he was wearing in anticipation of the University of Texas football team's visit with President Bush.
Despite McClellan's apparent ignorance of Whittington's condition, he should have refrained from laughing about the situation at all, said Jerry Swerling, a public relations expert and director of the USC-Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center in Los Angeles.
"To be making light of an incident in which somebody's life could have been at stake is an error for a variety of reasons," Sperling said of light-hearted statements coming from the White House.
Journalists who were flabbergasted at the way Cheney's office handled the incident will probably not be satisfied by his explanation.
"Katharine suggested, and I agreed, that she would go make the announcement. ... First of all, she was an eyewitness, she'd seen the whole thing. Secondly, she'd grown up on the ranch, she'd hunted there all of her life. Third, she was the immediate past head of the [Texas Parks and Wildlife Department], the game control commission in the state of Texas," Cheney said.
But Cheney is also a hunting expert and longtime frequenter of the Armstrong Ranch, said media critic Eric Burns. And as the shooter and victim, Cheney and Whittington were the best eyewitnesses to say what happened.
"There isn't one thing, actually, that he said that made sense to me," said Burns, host of "FOX News Watch."
Cheney's decision to go public came one day after Whittington had the heart attack and the chorus began to grow that he should speak publicly about the incident.
"I believe the vice president should hold a press conference to talk about the incident in Texas and the other things," Harry Reid, D-Nev., said after meeting with Cheney, President Bush and other congressional leaders Wednesday morning. The Senate minority leader stressed that Cheney had not given a press conference since 2002.
"I guess I'm kind of old-fashioned. I think he hasn't had a press conference in three-and-a-half years ... it's time to have one. It's not just the hunting incident, it's — I think you folks have a lot of questions you'd like to ask him," Reid said.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi accused the Bush administration of running a closed government that disrespects the public.
"Open government would demand that the vice president come clean on what happened there. Our hearts and our prayers, every night, go out to the gentleman who was hurt in this incident ... But we have to break this habit of the administration of closed government without the openness that is healthy for a democracy," Pelosi, D-Calif., said.
Asked whether she had brought up her views on the hunting incident with the vice president, Pelosi said she brought up Hurricane Katrina instead "because it is a very big issue for our country, and it's one that needs immediate attention and has an impact on so many lives in the country."
Republicans, too, have been quietly complaining about the vice president's unwillingness to explain publicly what occurred during the weekend hunting trip.
Vin Weber, a former Minnesota Republican representative, told The Washington Post: "I cannot believe he does not look back and say this should have been handled differently."
In only its second public acknowledgment of the incident, the vice president's office issued a statement on Tuesday saying Cheney had called Whittington around 1:30 p.m. EST to check on him.
"The vice president wished Mr. Whittington well and asked if there was anything he needed. The vice president said that he stood ready to assist. Mr. Whittington's spirits were good, but obviously his situation deserves the careful monitoring that his doctors are providing. The vice president said that his thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Whittington and his family," the statement read.
The vice president's only other statement since Saturday concerned his lack of a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department stamp for hunting game birds, which was publicized following the shooting. The statement said Cheney had mailed a $7 check to the department for a stamp, but did not mention Whittington or the shooting.
Carlos Valdez, district attorney of the county in which the shooting occurred, told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times on Wednesday that he did not foresee a criminal investigation. An incident report from the Kenedy County Sheriff's Office is pending.
FOX News' Sharon Liss contributed to this report.
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