CNN Paula Zahn Now- Transcript
PAULA ZAHN NOW
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
ZAHN: So, has the vice president finally diffused the frenzy over the shooting?
Let's ask Democratic Senator Charles Schumer if he's satisfied with the answers we're finally getting.
Senator Schumer joins us tonight.
So, Senator, you heard that the vice president has stood by the way this whole incident was handled. Here is exactly what he had to say about the initial delay: "One of the things I'd learned over the years was that first reports are often wrong, and you need -- really need to wait and nail it down. And there was enough variation in the reports we were getting from the hospital, we really didn't know until Sunday morning that Harry was probably going to be okay. And that's when we began the process of notifying the press."
Does this concern your -- does this -- does this satisfy your concerns about the delay?
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: Well, you know, I -- what really bother me most, Paula, is, this is indicative of something about the vice president and the administration as a whole.
Instead of coming clean about the facts and having that as a basic instinct, which I think every -- every administration should have...
ZAHN: But he said he didn't have the facts. It wasn't clear how Mr. Whittington was doing Saturday night.
SCHUMER: Well, you know, it's -- the whole thing is a little bit strange. It is not simply that they didn't have all the facts. They could have told people what happened, and say, we are going to fill you in on the details later.
You also have the situation where they didn't -- there wasn't an official press spokesman or anybody else, or the vice president himself coming forward, but, rather, the ambassador talking to her local newspaper.
And the point I wish to make here -- and I think this is the most important -- is, just as Katrina was sort of a metaphor in this administration, sort of a nonpolitical metaphor, if you will, for incompetence, this shooting incident is a metaphor for another thing that is so characteristic of this administration, a secretive nature, not a desire to come out and come forward and talk.
And it doesn't -- it is not just the shooting, which was a tragic incident, but it's so many other things.
SCHUMER: There are so many questions about the vice president and his role in so many different ways.
ZAHN: But...
SCHUMER: And he hasn't had a press conference in three-and-a- half years.
ZAHN: But, Mr. Senator, let -- let's come back to how the vice president has fiercely defended himself today. When it came to having the -- the property owner issue the information about what had happened, he said: "I thought that was the right call. I still do. I had no press person with me. There are a lot of basic important parts of the story that required some degree of understanding. And so we were confident that Katharine was the right one, especially because she was an eyewitness and she could speak authoritatively on it. She probably knew better than I did what had happened, since I had only seen one piece of it."
Valid point?
SCHUMER: No, I don't think it is a valid point.
I think that it could -- this was one person who saw it from one point of view, talking to one reporter. And we don't know what -- what the relationship was between that person and the reporter, what questions were asked, etcetera.
And, even tonight, the vice president makes a statement, goes before one particular reporter, but he ought to have -- be holding a, as I said, regular press conferences on this issue and on many, many other issues.
ZAHN: But, you know, that's not... SCHUMER: So, I'm not -- so, I'm not satisfied.
ZAHN: ... the standard procedure for vice presidents over the years.
But, if you're not satisfied -- I mean, he -- he has apologized. He said, it was his fault. He explained why he doled out the information the way he did, using the ambassador as the spokesperson. What else do you need to know?
SCHUMER: As I said, I think he ought to hold a press conference and let the whole press corps ask questions and get, finally, to the bottom of this.
And I think, when a vice president is as powerful as Vice President Cheney is, he ought to be coming before the public. There are questions about his role in the Plame investigation. There are questions about his role in the Iraq war. There are questions about his role in countless other issues. And we never get answers to these.
ZAHN: Senator Schumer, we are going to have to leave it there this evening. Thanks so much for joining us.
SCHUMER: Thank you.
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