The AP story reports that Kerry did indeed say that the identity of the foreign leaders who allegedly support him is “none of our business”:
The town meeting was contentious at times, with 52-year-old Cedric Brown repeatedly pressing the candidate to name the foreign leaders whom Kerry has said are backing his campaign.
“I’m not going to betray a private conversation with anybody,” Kerry said. As the crowd of several hundred people began to mutter and boo, Kerry said, “That’s none of your business.”
Now I’d think that when a Presidential candidate not only refuses to give details about one of his campaign claims, but alleges that these details are “none of our business,” that would be news. The New York Times story on the event, however, does not mention this, though it certainly covers the question:
A Republican business owner here in this November battleground state and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell had the same questions Sunday for Senator John Kerry: Which foreign leaders told you they support your campaign, and when did you meet with them?
The questions, in a volatile exchange at a forum here and in an interview on Fox News Sunday, stemmed from a comment that Mr. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, made last Monday at a Florida fund-raiser. It was the second time in recent days that stray comments by Mr. Kerry diverted attention from his themes of creating jobs and providing health insurance.
“I just want an honest answer,” Cedric Brown, 52, who owns a small sign company, told Mr. Kerry.
“Were they people like Blair or were they people like the president of North Korea?” he asked, referring to the British prime minister, Tony Blair. “Why not tell us who it was? Senator, you’re making yourself sound like a liar.” . . .
Mr. Brown said he came to the forum to confront Mr. Kerry, in part because of lingering bitterness from the Vietnam era, when as a West Point cadet he was spat on, he said, by antiwar protesters.
As many in the crowd shouted at Mr. Brown to “shut up,” Mr. Kerry, a veteran of both the Vietnam War and the protests against it, calmly promised to answer all queries, no matter the tone. Then he turned the tables.
“Are you a Democrat or a Republican — what are you?” he asked. “You answer the question.”
After Mr. Brown said he voted for Mr. Bush in 2000, Mr. Kerry added: “See? Democracy works both ways.”
Likewise, the Washington Post article on the incident doesn’t quote the “none of your business” line. (It does, though, suggest that Brown himself might have been rude in his remarks, something that I surely wouldn’t endorse: “He was repeatedly called ‘a liar’ during the public forum by a heckler, Cedric Brown, who interrupted Kerry’s comments on health care, education and the economy to raise questions about the assertion of foreign endorsements.)
Is there some disagreement about whether Kerry actually said the “none of your business” line (in which case the AP had better apologize to him)? Or, if Kerry did say it, do some news outlets just think that it’s not newsworthy when a candidate thinks that it’s none of the voters’ business to press him for details about his claims?
Thanks to reader Ted Dinkel for the Washington Post tip.
UPDATE: A reader e-mails me that “Hannity just played Kerry saying ‘That’s not your business, that’s mine.'”
Comments are closed.