“It was one of the worst days of my life.”
Fox News won’t broadcast their exclusive interview with Vice President Dick Cheney until 6 PM Eastern Standard Time, but they have already filed a report highlighting some of Cheney’s remarks. So far, it sounds like a favorable and more importantly, credible interview involving a guy (who just happens to be the Vice President of the United States), who mistakenly shot his friend, and that the mistake was an horrible experience that will never leave him.
I’ll post a link to the video as soon as it is available.
UPDATE: Video
UPDATE II: I’ve watched the interview, and in my opinion, the story today from the Vice President is the same as it was when Katharine Armstrong, owner of the ranch where the shooting occurred, released the news on Sunday. I buy Cheney’s reasoning for the news delay. No one wanted any inaccuracies, and given the fact that competition among the news media often results in the transmission of breaking news which is less than accurate, the Vice President weighed the risks and chose to wait until doctors were confident about Harry Whittington’s condition. He was right to do this.
Cheney understands the media, and he knows that no matter how the report goes out, he’s going to be vilified. This is why his reason for the delayed news release is credible. There was no benefit to him to have the story out sooner or later, the final judgement was going to be the same either way.
One thing is completely clear. Cheney brought humanness to the whole thing. Contrary to the cold-blooded Darth Vader-like caricature built by the media, this interview shows that the man is clearly upset over what happened. Who wouldn’t be? But will Cheney’s remorse be the subject of the next cycle of headlines concerning the matter?
Don’t bet on it.