Transcript of Cheney interview

Hume: Now, is it clear that — he had caught part of the shot, is that right?

Cheney: Part of the shot.  He was struck in the right side of his face, his neck and his upper torso on the right side of his body.

Hume: And you — and I take it, you missed the bird. 

Cheney: I have no idea.  I mean, you focused on the bird, but as soon as I fired and saw Harry there, everything else went out of my mind.  I don’t know whether the bird went down, or didn’t. 

Hume: So did you run over to him or —

Cheney: Ran over to him and —

Hume: And what did you see?  He’s lying there —

Cheney: He was laying there on his back, obviously bleeding.  You could see where the shot had struck him.  And one of the fortunate things was that I’ve always got a medical team, in effect, covering me wherever I go.  I had a physician’s assistant with me that day.  Within a minute or two he was on the scene administering first-aid.  And --

Hume: And Mr. Whittington was conscious, unconscious, what?

Cheney: He was conscious —

Hume: What did you say?

Cheney: Well, I said, "Harry, I had no idea you were there."  And —

Hume: What did he say?

Cheney: He didn’t respond.  He was — he was breathing, conscious at that point, but he didn’t — he was, I’m sure, stunned, obviously, still trying to figure out what had happened to him.  The doc was fantastic —

Hume: What did you think when you saw the injuries?  How serious did they appear to you to be?

Cheney: I had no idea how serious it was going to be.  I mean, it could have been extraordinarily serious.  You just don’t know at that moment.  You know he’s been struck, that there’s a lot of shot that had hit him.  But you don’t know — you think about his eyes.  Fortunately, he was wearing hunting glasses, and that protected his eyes.  You — you just don’t know.  And the key thing, as I say, initially, was that the physician’s assistant was right there.  We also had an ambulance at the ranch, because one always follows me around wherever I go.  And they were able to get the ambulance there, and within about 30 minutes we had him on his way to the hospital. 

Hume: And what did you do then?  Did you get up and did you go with him, or did you go to the hospital?

Cheney: No, I had — I told my physician’s assistant to go with him, but the ambulance is crowded and they didn’t need another body in there.  And so we loaded up and went back to ranch headquarters, basically.  By then, it’s about 7:00 p.m. at night.  And Harry —

Hume: Did you have a sense then of how he was doing?

Cheney: Well, we’re getting reports, but they were confusing.  Early reports are always wrong.  The initial reports that came back from the ambulance were that he was doing well, his eyes were open.  They got him into the emergency room at Kingsville —

Hume: His eyes were open when you found him, then, right?

Cheney: Yes.  One eye was open.  But they got him in the emergency room in the small hospital at Kingsville, checked him out further there, then lifted him by helicopter from there into Corpus Christi, which has a big city hospital and all of the equipment.

Hume: So by now what time is it?

Cheney: I don’t have an exact time line, although he got there sometime that evening, 8:00 p.m., 9:00 p.m.

Hume: So this is several hours after the incident?

Cheney: Well, I would say he was in Kingsville in the emergency room probably within, oh, less than an hour after they left the ranch. 

Hume: Now, you’re a seasoned hunter —

Cheney: I am, well, for the last 12, 15 years.

Hume: Right, and so you know all the procedures and how to maintain the proper line and distance between you and other hunters, and all that.  So how, in your judgment, did this happen?  Who -- what caused this?  What was the responsibility here?

Cheney: Well, ultimately, I’m the guy who pulled the trigger that fired the round that hit Harry.  And you can talk about all of the other conditions that existed at the time, but that’s the bottom line.  And there’s no -- it was not Harry’s fault.  You can’t blame anybody else.  I’m the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend.  And I say that is something I’ll never forget.

MORE FROM POLITICS

Politics Section Front

Senate set for health care debate Levin: Afghan forces key to success Newsweek: Why Cheney should run in 2012 NYT: White House intruders want to sell tale NYT: S.C. rift highlights debate in GOP Life isn’t all glamor for Obama crashers Marines to renew focus on Taliban haven Can Obama retain Hispanic support? Senate report: Bin Laden was 'within grasp' Dinner crashers met Obama, White House says Politics Section Front   Add Politics headlines to your news reader: