Bush says Cheney handled accident ‘just fine’

updated 8:08 p.m. ET Feb. 16, 2006

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Thursday he was satisfied with Vice President Dick Cheney's explanation about his shooting accident in Texas.

“I thought the vice president handled the issue just fine,” the president said. “Yesterday when he was here in the Oval Office I saw the deep concern he had about a person who he wounded. I thought yesterday’s explanation was a very strong and important explanation to make to the American people.”

The remarks were Bush’s first since the incident.

Meanwhile, a Texas county sheriff’s office said no charges would be filed against Cheney in the incident, and closed the investigation.

Bush said it was “a deeply traumatic moment for him and obviously it was a tragic moment for Harry Whittington.”

Bush said Democrats were drawing “the wrong conclusion about a tragic accident” when they say it depicts the White House as overly secretive.

Earlier Thursday, Bush spokesman Scott McClellan had said Bush was satisfied with Cheney’s account of his hunting accident, but he declined to say whether the president felt it should have been revealed earlier.

The accident happened on Saturday but was not publicly revealed until the next day.

Cheney spoke publicly Wednesday
Cheney himself spoke publicly about the accident for the first time Wednesday in an exclusive interview with Fox News Channel. He said he did not see his hunting companion Harry Whittington until just after he fired on a covey of quail and peppered him with bird shot in the face, neck and chest.

Cheney described it as “one of the worst days of my life” and rejected the notion that Whittington bears any responsibility. “I’m the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend,” Cheney said.

“The president’s satisfied with what the vice president said yesterday,” McClellan said Thursday.

Bush added later Thursday, “Now our concerns are directed towards the recovery of our friend. I knew Harry Whittington when I was the governor of Texas and in Austin. A fine man. He's been involved in our state's politics for a long period of time.”

Spokesmen wanted it released sooner
Cheney also defended his decision to keep it from the public until a day after it happened.

The vice president acknowledged that McClellan and Bush communications adviser Dan Bartlett urged him to release information about the accident quickly. But he said he made the ultimate decision to have the owner of the Texas ranch to reveal it to a local newspaper without any official announcement from the White House.

Kelly West / WpN file Attorney Harry Whittington, seen Jan. 25, is recovering in the hospital after Vice President Cheney accidentally shot him on Saturday.

That decision created a major public relations problem for the White House, with some Republicans even suggesting that it made the situation worse by suggesting the possibility of some sort of cover-up.

Asked whether Bush encouraged Cheney to speak out Wednesday, McClellan said, “Obviously there are internal discussions that we have, and I’ll leave those internal.”

Cheney said the accident happened after Whittington stepped out of the hunting party to retrieve a downed bird in deep cover. Cheney said he and a third hunter walked about 100 yards away to where another covey had been spotted. Immediately after he shot at a bird flying to his right, he said he saw his 78-year-old companion in his line of fire.

“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.”

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