More Questions Raised About Delay in Reporting Cheney Misfire
By Greg Mitchell
Published: February 12, 2006 10:20 PM ET updated Monday NEW YORK The more than 18-hour delay in news emerging that the vice president of the United States had shot a man, sending him to an intensive care unit with his wounds, grew even more curious Monday with word from the White House that President Bush had been informed of the incident Saturday but not immediately about Dick Cheney's role.
Earlier, E&P had learned that the official confirmation of the shooting came about only after a local reporter in Corpus Christi, Texas, received a tip from the owner of the property where the shooting occurred and called Vice President Cheney's office for confirmation.
The confirmation was made but it is not known for certain that Cheney's office, the White House, or anyone else intended to announce the shooting if the reporter, Jaime Powell of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, had not received word from the ranch owner.
One of Powell's colleagues at the Corpus Christi paper, Beth Francesco, told E&P that Powell had built up a strong source relationship with the prominent ranch owner, Katharine Armstrong, which led to the tip. Powell is chief political reporter for the paper and also covers the area where the ranch is located south of Sarita, about 60 miles from Corpus Christi. Armstrong did not notify reporters at larger papers in Dallas, Houston, Austin, or other cities.
Armstrong called the paper Sunday morning looking for Powell, who was not at work. When they did talk, Armstrong revealed the shooting of prominent Austin attorney Harry Whittington, who is now in stable condition in a hospital. Powell then called Cheney's office for the confirmation around midday. The newspaper broke the story at mid-afternoon -- not a word about it had appeared before then.
The Cheney spokesman with whom Powell spoke, Lea Anne McBride, would not comment on whether the Cheney office or the White House would have ever released the information had the Caller-Times not contacted them.
"I'm not going to speculate," McBride said, according to Powell. "When you put the call into me, I was able to confirm that account."
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, peppered with questions about the incident at his Monday morning press "gaggle," explained that the White House had deferred to the Vice President's office in the matter, and the latter deferred to the ranch owner.
McClellan said that the first reports that came to the White House only said that a member of Cheney's party had been shot but did not indicate that Cheney was the shooter. Top Bush aide Karl Rove later informed the president of Cheney's involvement but McClellan refused to say precisely when, beyond saying it was "in a relatively reasonable" amount of time.
The New York Times observed Monday that reporters "seemed frustrated that Mr. McClellan could not tell them exactly when Mr. Bush learned that the vice president himself had shot Mr. Whittington." As for McClellan's knowledge--he said that he did not know about Cheney as triggerman until Sunday morning.
Francesco, at the Corpus Christi paper, said she felt it was a bit odd that her newsroom had not received any information about the shooting since "we often call law enforcement in the area, even on weekends. We checked in and didn't hear anything about it." In some states, all serious shooting incidents must be immediately reported to police.
Hospital officials on Monday continued to offer few details on the victim's condition, but said he was "very stable" and that pellets were possibly still being removed. Sally Whittington told The Dallas Morning News her father was being observed because of swelling from some of the welts on his neck. His face "looks like chicken pox, kind of," she said.
A hospital spokesman said Whittington was in the intensive care unit because his condition warranted it, but he didn't elaborate. Whittington sent word that he would have no comment on the incident out of respect for Cheney.
While E&P was first to raise questions about the delay Sunday afternoon, Frank James, reporter in the Chicago Tribune's Washington bureau, put his own spin on it later in the day, asking, "How is it that Vice President Cheney can shoot a man, albeit accidentally, on Saturday during a hunting trip and the American public not be informed of it until today?"
Indeed, others raised questions as well. "There was no immediate reason given as to why the incident wasn't reported until Sunday," the Dallas Morning News observed. "The sheriff's office in Kenedy County did not respond to phone calls Sunday."
The president, who was at the White House over the weekend, was informed about the incident in Texas after it happened Saturday by Chief of Staff Andrew Card and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and was updated on Sunday, press secretary Scott McClellan said.
But neither the White House nor the vice president's staff announced the shooting. The Washington Post reported late Sunday that Cheney's office did not make a public announcement.
Asked by The New York Times why it did not make the news known, Cheney spokeswoman McBride said, "We deferred to the Armstrongs regarding what had taken place at their ranch."
Armstrong said later, according to The Associated Press, that everyone at the ranch was so "focused" on Whittington's health Saturday that it wasn't until Sunday she called the Caller-Times to report the accident.
"It was accidental, a hunting accident," Sheriff Ramon Salinas III of Kenedy County told The New York Times, adding that the Secret Service notified him Saturday of the episode. "They did what they had to according to law."
In an odd disparity, Armstrong told the Houston Chronicle that Whittington, 78, was "bruised more than bloodied" in the incident and "his pride was hurt more than anything else." Yet he was airlifted to a hospital and has spent more than a day in an intensive care unit.
The Chronicle also reports Monday that hunting accidents are very rare in Texas. In 2004, it said, the state's one million-plus hunters were involved in only 29 hunting-related accidents (19 involving firearms), four of which were fatal.
Time magazine on its Web site observed that Cheney is scheduled to join President Bush on Monday afternoon when he takes questions from reporters in the Oval Office, following a meeting with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. "White House aides can be expected to say that the Vice President did not shoot Whittington, which suggests a bullet, but rather sprayed him with birdshot, a type of ammunition made up of tiny pieces of lead or steel," Time predicted.
On Sunday, the Chicago Tribune's James wrote on the Washington bureau's blog at the newspaper's site, "When a vice president of the U.S. shoots a man under any circumstance, that is extremely relevant information. What might be the excuse to justify not immediately making the incident public?
"The vice president is well known for preferring to operate in secret. ... Some secrecy, especially when it comes to the executing the duties of president or vice president, is understandable and expected by Americans.
"But when the vice president's office, or the White House, delays in reporting a shooting like Saturday's to the public via the media, it needlessly raises suspicions and questions of trust. And it may just further the impression held by many, rightly or wrongly, that the White House doesn't place the highest premium on keeping the public fully and immediately informed."
The New York Times reported late Sunday that Whittington was commissioner of the state's Funeral Service Commission. In 1999, George W. Bush, then governor of Texas, named Whittington to head the Commission, which licenses and regulates funeral directors and embalmers in the state. "When he was named," the Times revealed, "a former executive director of the commission, Eliza May, was suing the state, saying that she had been fired because she investigated a funeral home chain that was owned by a friend of Mr. Bush.
"The suit was settled in 2001, but the details were not disclosed." ___
Latest update, Monday p.m.
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan explained Monday that the White House knew about the accidental shooting of a fellow hunter on Saturday night, but deferred to the vice president's office, which did not announce it. The vice president's office in turn deferred to Katharine Armstrong, the ranch owner in Texas where the shooting took place. She called a Corpus Christi reporter at midday Sunday and only then did the news come out.
McClellan also said Monday, according to The Associated Press, that "Bush and senior aides were told Saturday night by the staff of the White House Situation Room that somebody in the Cheney's hunting party was shot, but he said he was not told until Sunday morning that Cheney was the shooter. He said he contacted the vice president's office and everyone agreed they needed to get the information to the public quickly."
Reviewing the late-morning press briefing today, the National Journal's Hotline site said that reporters reacted with "astonishment" to McClellan's admission about not knowing about Cheney's role in the shooting until Sunday. It noted that McClellan did everything possible to imply that the responsibility for any bungling resides in the vice president's office.
McClellan also said he did not know about a report that the Secret Service prevented a deputy sheriff from interviewing Cheney.
Courtesy of USAtoday.com, here is a sampling of the briefing, featuring NBC's David Gregory.
GREGORY: "The vice president of the United States shoots a man, and he feels that it's appropriate for a ranch owner who witnessed this to tell a local Corpus Christi newspaper, not the White House press corps at large or notify the public in a national way."
MCCLELLAN: "Well, I think we all know that once it is made public, then it's going to be news, and all of you are going to be seeking that information. The vice president's office was ready to provide additional information to reporters. There was no traveling White House press corps with the vice president, as there is with the president in a situation like this, so there are some different circumstances. And the other circumstance was here that someone was injured and needed medical care. And the vice president's team was making sure he was getting taken care of, and that he got to the hospital and received additional treatment."
Armstrong told the AP today that her family realized Sunday morning that it would be a story and decided to call the local newspaper, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. She said she then discussed the news coverage with Cheney for the first time.
"I said, Mr. Vice President, this is going to be public, and I'm comfortable going to the hometown newspaper," she told the AP. "And he said you go ahead and do whatever you are comfortable doing."
Earlier Monday morning, McClellan had said, "The first priorityŠ was making sure that Mr. Whittington was getting the medical care that he needed. The first priority Saturday night was making sure he receiving medical care and getting to the hospital and being taken care of, and that's what happened. The vice president's office was taking the lead on making sure the information got out, and it did. The vice president's office worked with Mrs. Armstrong to get that information out.''
Matt Cooper, the Time magazine reporter, said on CBS's "The Early Show" today, "It's clearly an accident, but the fact that the White House didn't release this information, that it sat around for almost a day is in itself, bizarre."
In an online chat at the Washington Post site, the paper's White House reporter Peter Baker said reporters in D.C. are "flabbergasted" by the shooting. He indicated that the Post was looking deeply into how it was reported to the local sheriff and the exact condition of the victim.
"It sure woke up a lot of folks here in Washington on a quiet, snowy Sunday," Baker said. "Whether the story has legs I suppose remains to be seen." He said the delay question is "being asked a lot in Washington today...
"I'm not sure there is a standard protocol when the vice president shoots someone, but it's fair to say reporters prefer that news be disclosed in a timely fashion."
In response to another query he revealed, "we are looking today into the issue of the local sheriff's office and what involvement they had in this. Stay tuned, more to come."
Asked if knew of any other vice president shooting a man, Baker replied: "Obviously there was Aaron Burr shooting Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804, but that was actually intentional and in that case the victim died."
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Greg Mitchell is editor of E&P.