To Kill a Mockingbird

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Thursday he was satisfied with Vice President Dick Cheney's explanation about his shooting accident in Texas.

“I thought the vice president handled the issue just fine,” the president said. “Yesterday when he was here in the Oval Office I saw the deep concern he had about a person who he wounded. I thought yesterday’s explanation was a very strong and important explanation to make to the American people.”

The remarks were Bush’s first since the incident.

Meanwhile, a Texas county sheriff’s office said no charges would be filed against Cheney in the incident, and closed the investigation.

Bush said it was “a deeply traumatic moment for him and obviously it was a tragic moment for Harry Whittington.”

Bush said Democrats were drawing “the wrong conclusion about a tragic accident” when they say it depicts the White House as overly secretive.

Earlier Thursday, Bush spokesman Scott McClellan had said Bush was satisfied with Cheney’s account of his hunting accident, but he declined to say whether the president felt it should have been revealed earlier.

The accident happened on Saturday but was not publicly revealed until the next day.

Cheney spoke publicly Wednesday

Cheney himself spoke publicly about the accident for the first time Wednesday in an exclusive interview with Fox News Channel. He said he did not see his hunting