Reporters Press McClellan on Delay in Reporting Cheney Shooting Incident

By: Greg Mitchell Reporters at White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan's Monday morning press "gaggle" peppered him with questions about the 18-hour delay in any word emerging on Vice President Cheney's shooting incident in Texas on Saturday.

McClellan explained 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."

It was unclear whether McClellan meant that the president did not know about Cheney's role until Sunday or that McClellan did not know. He did say 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."

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.

CBS News White House correspondent Peter Maer reported Monday that Texas authorities are complaining that the Secret Service barred them from speaking to Cheney after the incident. "Kenedy County Texas Sheriffs Lt. Juan Guzman said deputies first learned of the shooting when an ambulance was called," Maer said. The Secret Service is looking into how the case was handled at the scene, Maer added.

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 priority? 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.??

At the earlier not-televised "gaggle," McClellan and Gregory had gotten into a heated exchange, as described by the Chicago Tribune's Mark Silva at the paper's Web site. It began with Gregory accusing McClellan of "ducking and weaving" on the Cheney episode.

"David, hold on? the cameras aren't on right now," McClellan replied. "You can do this later."

"Don't accuse me of trying to pose to the cameras," the newsman said, his voice rising somewhat. "Don?t be a jerk to me personally when I?m asking you a serious question."

"You don't have to yell," McClellan said.

"I will yell," said Gregory, pointing a finger at McCellan at his dais. "If you want to use that podium to try to take shots at me personally, which I don?t appreciate, then I will raise my voice, because that?s wrong."

"Calm down, Dave, calm down," said McClellan, remaining calm throughout the exchange.

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."