Vice President Cheney did the right thing and accepted responsibility for accidentally shooting his hunting companion, Harry Whittington, saying he and he alone was responsible:
"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."
Cheney's first interview about the hunting accident will be broadcast on "Special Report With Brit Hume" at 6 p.m. EST.
The man Cheney shot on Saturday, 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. Whittington suffered a minor heart attack Tuesday morning due to a birdshot pellet that had migrated to his heart.
The mainstream media has become completely unhinged over the hunting accident.
Claiming that failure to tell the White House press corps about the accident for 14 hours is some sort of major scandal. There is no evidence of any cover-up. There is no controversy. There was an accident. Fortunately, all it amounts to is a very good example to be used in hunter safety courses. The vice president needs a refresher course. That's it.
Hugh Hewitt has more.
UPDATE: The Associated Press provides more details on Cheney's reaction to the accident:
"The image of him falling is something I'll never ever be able to get out of my mind," Cheney said. "I fired, and there's Harry falling. It was, I'd have to say, one of the worst days of my life at that moment."
[. . .]
"You can talk about all of the other conditions that exist at the time but that's the bottom line and - it was not Harry's fault," he said. "You can't blame anybody else. I'm the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend."
[. . .]
"I ran over to him," Cheney said. "He was laying there on his back, obviously, bleeding. You could see where the shot struck him."
On the delay in announcing the accident, Cheney said he thought it made sense to let the owner of the ranch where it happened reveal the accident:
"I thought that was the right call," Cheney said. "I still do."
Cheney said he agreed that ranch owner Katharine 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?" he was asked.
"I still do," Cheney responded. "The accuracy was enormously important. I had no press person with me."
Whittington has declined to comment.
"He still kind of wonders what all the hoopla is about," said Peter Banko, administrator of Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial.
According to the Associated Press, Cheney said he had had a beer at lunch that day, but nobody was drinking when they went back out to hunt several hours later.
In my younger days I did what I consider a lot of shooting and a bit of hunting, although very little bird hunting. I never had a beer, or any alcohol, for lunch when hunting or shooting. It was deeply ingrained in me, and all my hunting and shooting companions, to be extremely careful where your weapon was pointed. I agree with the vice president, the accident was his fault. Now let's move on.
At Outside The Beltway, James Joyner agrees posting that Cheney did nothing wrong in choosing the local paper as the venue for breaking the story and that there's little doubt the accident was Cheney's fault.
UPDATE: A transcript of the Fox interview with Vice President Dick Cheney is available here.
UPDATE II: At A Moderate Voice, Joe Gandelman has great post about this kerfuffle. More at All Things Beautiful and The Median Sib.
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