Okay. I’m looking for a raw transcript of Cheney’s interview with Brit Hume and I can’t find it. But this section from the Fox News website gives the gist of what concerns me.
“I turned and shot at the bird, and at that second, saw Harry standing there. Didn’t know he was there,” Cheney said. “I saw him fall, basically. It had happened so fast.”
The vice president added that Whittington was standing in a gully so only his upper body was visible, and that the sun was facing Cheney, which “affected the vision, too, I’m sure.”
I’d appreciate it if any bird hunters can help me out with this testimony.
1. Cheney claims that he was tracking a bird that had been flushed out of the brush. This bird was therefore flying.
2. Cheney claims Whittington was approximately thirty yards away.
3. Cheney claims that Whittington was standing in a depression and was only visible from the torso up.
4. Cheney shot his gun and hit Whittington from the torso up.
Assuming that Cheney’s gun was at least slightly raised to hit a bird flying out of the brush, it would be impossible to hit Whittington from 30 yards.
Is it normal to have your gun lowered to hit a bird just as it comes out of the brush? Do quail tend to fly low to the ground?
I know that I may be displaying my ignorance of bird hunting but this just doesn’t make sense to me.
And the trajectory of the shot is just one aspect of this that isn’t adding up.
The victim was presumably wearing warm clothing and a orange safety vest. He was struck on the right side, the angle the offered the maximum distance to the heart. How did birdshot penetrate that deeply into his chest and not go right through his unprotected neck or through his cranium and into his brain?
And, furthermore:
Why did the President and Vice-President wait 36 hours to discuss this incident?
Did Cheney authorize Ms. Armstrong to talk to the local reporter as he claims, or did she do it on her own initiative as she told Byron York of the National Review and reporters from the Washington Post?
Why did Cheney’s staff call the Situation Room and withhold the key information that Cheney was the shooter?
Why did Karl Rove have to call Armstrong to get the information that Cheney was the shooter? And did he give her her talking points that completely mischaracterized Whittington’s wounds and placed the blame for the shooting on Whittington?
And I have more questions. But most of all, I want to know how a man can hit a target below him when aiming at a bird that is flying.
You can play a quail shooting game here.
