Ari Fleischer Joins Criticism Of Cheney's Response to Shooting

Editor and Publisher
Feb. 15, 2006

NEW YORK Ari Fleischer, who served as President George W. Bush's first press secretary, added to the growing criticism of Vice President Dick Cheney's handling of the weekend shooting incident in Texas, telling E&P this afternoon that it "crosses the threshold of news worthiness that ought to be announced and explained."

Fleischer, who was Bush's first press secretary - from 2001 to 2003 - told E&P that Cheney's accidental shooting of Texas attorney Harry Whittington on Saturday during a hunting trip should not have taken nearly a day to be reported. "It would have been better if the vice president and/or his staff had come out last Saturday night or first thing Sunday morning and announced it," he said during a phone interview Tuesday. "It could have and should have been handled differently."

But Fleischer also took a jab at the reporting frenzy surrounding the story, saying most Americans are not as focused on it as the White House press corps. "The press is largely right on the issue--but it can be right and go too far," he added.

He also said that if he were still in the White House, he would urge the vice president's office to take some of the heat off Bush's staff: "I think you go to the vice president and say, 'you need to be handling this.'"

Fleischer's comments came just hours after Marlin Fitzwater, who served as press secretary to Bush's father and Ronald Reagan, also criticized Cheney, telling E&P he was "appalled" at the response to the incident.

Interest in the shooting, and its slow disclosure, grew dramatically Tuesday after reports that Whittington had suffered a mild heart attack due to the injuries. "That makes it a more serious story and keeps it going," Fleischer said of the heart attack. "But, in fairness, it is a minimal heart attack."

When asked how Press Secretary Scott McClellan, Fleischer's former deputy, was handling the pressure, Fleischer gave him positive marks. "It is the job of the press secretary to get caught between a rock and a hard place," he said, noting that Tuesday was McClellan's birthday. "He lands on his feet."

Fleischer further asserted that after several days the story had lost some of its interest to most Americans. "This is now a real inside-the-beltway controversy," he said. "The American people watched it and heard about it Sunday night and Monday morning; it was widely covered. They heard the news and saw the story. It is not dominating the lives of the American people."

The former press secretary went on to describe the continued coverage as a battle between the press corps and the White House. "This is a terrible clash between two of the most powerful and sensitive forces on earth, the White House and the White House press corps," he said. Fleischer also hinted that some of the White House reporters might be upset that they did not break the story, which the Corpus Christi [Texas] Caller-Times first reported on Sunday.

"No White House reporter likes to get scooped on a national story," he said. "But every White House reporter started as a local reporter somewhere who would have liked that scoop. That feeds into it."