mysanantonio.com<\/a><\/p>\nThe White House defended itself Monday for waiting nearly a day to notify the public that Vice President Dick Cheney was involved in a weekend hunting accident in South Texas.<\/p>\n
The Bush administration stood by its decision to let rancher Katharine Armstrong make the first public disclosure of a shooting that sent Austin lawyer Harry Whittington to a Corpus Christi hospital with shotgun wounds.<\/p>\n
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the first priority was to get medical treatment for Whittington, 78, and then determine the facts surrounding the shooting.<\/p>\n
“The vice president agreed with Mrs. Armstrong that it was best that she provide that information publicly first,” McClellan told a White House news briefing Monday.<\/p>\n
Bush administration officials came under fire for putting the release of the information about the shooting into the hands of a private citizen, and for not releasing an official statement from the White House.<\/p>\n
Armstrong notified the Corpus Christi Caller-Times early Sunday about the shooting, which occurred a day earlier on Armstrong’s ranch, about 60 miles south of Corpus Christi.<\/p>\n
Cheney’s party, which included Pamela Willeford, the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland, was hunting quail when the shooting occurred shortly after 5 p.m.<\/p>\n
According to a Texas Parks & Wildlife Department incident report, Whittington had downed a bird and gone to retrieve it.<\/p>\n
As he walked back, another covey was flushed. Cheney swung around and fired at a bird, hitting Whittington in the face, neck and chest, the report said.<\/p>\n
Kenedy County sheriff’s deputies ruled the shooting an accident, Chief Deputy Gilbert San Miguel said. A police report is pending.<\/p>\n
“This is a hunting accident. There was no alcohol, no misconduct on anyone’s part,” San Miguel told reporters at the Kenedy County Sheriff’s Department on Monday.<\/p>\n
The Secret Service contacted Kenedy County Sheriff Ramon Salinas “shortly after the incident,” the sheriff’s office said.<\/p>\n
There is no legal requirement in Texas to report hunting accidents.<\/p>\n
The Texas Health and Safety Code requires that any health facility or physician who treats a gunshot wound is required to report it to legal authorities. The statute does not stipulate how quickly the report must be made.<\/p>\n
Cheney and Whittington both received warning citations accusing them of violating state game laws.<\/p>\n
While both possessed valid hunting licenses, neither had an Upland Game Bird Stamp, a requirement for hunting quail that went into effect in September.<\/p>\n
Since this is the first year for the $7 stamp, violators receive only warnings, the Parks & Wildlife Department said.<\/p>\n
Cheney fired a 28-gauge shotgun using shells with 71\/2 shot, the incident report said.<\/p>\n
Armstrong told other news organizations the vice president was not at fault, and she suggested Whittington should have announced his presence as he approached the other hunters from behind.<\/p>\n
Armstrong was appointed to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission in 1999 by then-Gov. George W. Bush.<\/p>\n
Gov. Rick Perry subsequently named her chairman. She resigned in 2003.<\/p>\n
President Bush was notified about the shooting late Saturday by White House Chief of Staff Andy Card and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, McClellan said.<\/p>\n
Later, after Rove spoke with Armstrong, Bush was told that Cheney was the shooter, McClellan said.<\/p>\n
McClellan said the vice president visited Whittington at the hospital before leaving South Texas on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Whittington is a longtime supporter of Republican politics in Texas.<\/p>\n
“The vice president was pleased to see that he was doing well and in good spirits, and the president is as well,” McClellan said.<\/p>\n
Whittington was out of intensive care and reported in stable condition at Christus Spohn Hospital. He has declined comment.<\/p>\n
He was in good spirits on Monday, according to San Miguel, who said deputies spoke with Whittington as he recuperated from his wounds.<\/p>\n
When asked about the long interval between the shooting and the time it was publicly disclosed, McClellan conceded that improvement could be made.<\/p>\n
“You can always look back at these issues and look at how to do a better job,” McClellan told reporters.<\/p>\n
McClellan attributed the delay, in part, to the fact the vice president was traveling without the press corps.<\/p>\n
After Armstrong notified the Caller-Times, the newspaper received confirmation of the account from the vice president’s office in Washington and posted the story on the paper’s Web site Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
The Caller-Times, in Monday’s editions, reported that Kenedy County sheriff’s deputies said they were not allowed to take statements about the incident until the day after the shooting.<\/p>\n
San Miguel declined to comment on the delay in interviewing Cheney or other details surrounding the case.<\/p>\n
“I really can’t say right now,” San Miguel said.<\/p>\n
gmartin @ express-news.net<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Gary Martin and John Tedesco EXPRESS-NEWS STAFF WRITERS 02\/14\/2006 TUESDAY A Section 01A All content (c) San Antonio Express-News mysanantonio.com The White House defended itself Monday for waiting nearly a day to notify the public that Vice President Dick Cheney was involved in a weekend hunting accident in South Texas. The Bush administration stood … <\/p>\n
Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-70","page","type-page","status-publish","infinite-scroll-item"],"yoast_head":"\nShoot first, answer questions a day later: White House says Cheney's focus was on treatment for lawyer | John Tedesco<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/johntedesco.net\/blog\/shoot-first-answer-questions-a-day-later-white-house-says-cheneys-focus-was-on-treatment-for-lawyer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shoot first, answer questions a day later: White House says Cheney's focus was on treatment for lawyer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Gary Martin and John Tedesco EXPRESS-NEWS STAFF WRITERS 02\/14\/2006 TUESDAY A Section 01A All content (c) San Antonio Express-News mysanantonio.com The White House defended itself Monday for waiting nearly a day to notify the public that Vice President Dick Cheney was involved in a weekend hunting accident in South Texas. 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