Transcript of Cheney interview

Hume: Now, it strikes me that you must have known that this was going to be a national story —

Cheney: Oh, sure.

Hume: and it does raise the question of whether you couldn’t have headed off this beltway firestorm if you had put out the word to the national media, as well as to the local newspaper so that it could post it on its Web site.  I mean, in retrospect, wouldn’t that have been the wise course —

Cheney: Well, who is going to do that?  Are they going to take my word for what happened?  There is obviously —

Hume: Well, obviously, you could have put the statement out in the name of whoever you wanted.  You could put it out in the name of Mrs. Armstrong, if you wanted to.  Obviously, that’s — she’s the one who made the statement.

Cheney: Exactly.  That’s what we did.  We went with Mrs. Armstrong.  We had -- she’s the one who put out the statement.  And she was the most credible one to do it because she was a witness.  It wasn’t me in terms of saying, here’s what happened, it was —

Hume: Right, understood.  Now, the suspicion grows in some quarters that you — that this was an attempt to minimize it, by having it first appear in a little paper and appear like a little hunting incident down in a remote corner of Texas.

Cheney: There wasn’t any way this was going to be minimized, Brit; but it was important that it be accurate.  I do think what I’ve experienced over the years here in Washington is as the media outlets have proliferated, speed has become sort of a driving force, lots of time at the expense of accuracy.  And I wanted to make sure we got it as accurate as possible, and I think Katharine was an excellent choice.  I don’t know who you could get better as the basic source for the story than the witness who saw the whole thing.

Hume: When did you first speak to — if you spoke to Andy Card at, what, midday, you said, on Sunday?

Cheney: Sometime Sunday morning.

Hume: And what about — when did you first — when, if ever, have you discussed it with the President?

Cheney: I talked to him about it yesterday, or Monday — first on Monday, and then on Tuesday, too.

Hume: There is reporting to the effect that some in the White House feel you kind of — well, look at what Scott McClellan went through the last couple days.  There’s some sense — and perhaps not unfairly so — that you kind of hung him out to dry.  How do you feel about that?

Cheney: Well, Scott does a great job and it’s a tough job.  It’s especially a tough job under these conditions and circumstances.  I had a bit of the feeling that the press corps was upset because, to some extent, it was about them — they didn’t like the idea that we called the Corpus Christi Caller-Times instead of The New York Times.  But it strikes me that the Corpus Christi Caller-Times is just as valid a news outlet as The New York Times is, especially for covering a major story in south Texas.

Hume: Well, perhaps so, but isn’t there an institution here present at the White House that has long-established itself as the vehicle through which White House news gets out, and that’s the pool?

MORE FROM POLITICS

Politics Section Front

Aspiring reality TV stars crash Obama party Obama to speak Tuesday on Afghanistan policy U.S. sets climate target ahead of summit Obama's first pardon: A turkey called 'Courage' Records show White House health care talks Stars are out at White House state dinner The history of presidential turkey pardons Analysis: Obama not a ‘gut player’ on war Is Obama's star dimming as U.S. stock drops? NYT: Medical debt spurs more bankruptcies Politics Section Front   Add Politics headlines to your news reader: