I have no doubt that it’s because Kerry lied to Peter Jennings back in 2003. We only have four seconds of this little interview, and it’s of Kerry, but this is what it’s all about This is the spark that ignited it. This is Kerry in December, just last December and he’s telling Peter Jennings he threw away his ribbons and that a myth has been created about him throwing away his medals. Well we know who created the “myth” now, and that’s John Kerry. So Kerry has just said, as a prelude to letting you hear this bite, Kerry has just said that he only threw away his ribbons and the medals of two other vets, none of the 11 medals he was awarded, and then he said this.
KERRY: And so this myth was created: I threw away my ribbons.
RUSH: The myth is that he threw away his ribbons. He didn’t throw away his ribbons. He threw away his medals — so he told Peter Jennings. Well, a new tape came to light that the very right-wing network ABC found of John Kerry in 1971, not only saying he threw away his medals but bragging that he gave back more than just his Purple Hearts and his Bronze Star. This is a 1971 TV interview, Washington, D.C., news program called Viewpoint. Here is an exchange between a news woman and Kerry.
FEMALE VOICE: You’re looking at a picture of a veteran who’s throwing his medals away.
KERRY: And that was the medals themselves. And so they decided to give them back to their country.
FEMALE VOICE: How many did you give back, John?
KERRY: I gave back, I can’t remember. Six, seven, eight, nine.
FEMALE VOICE: You were awarded the Bronze Star, Silver Star, and three Purple Hearts?
KERRY: Well, above that I gave back a couple others.
RUSH: ‘Above that I gave back a couple others.’ So here he’s just said, ‘You’re looking at a picture of a veteran’ — or he’s just said, ‘That was the medals themselves, and they decided to give them back to our country. It was the medals themselves.’ But he told Peter Jennings just last December he only threw away his ribbons. That’s all it took, folks. The match was lit. It is now ABC that is focused on John Kerry because Kerry made the mistake of lying to Peter Jennings. So when we come back from the break, you will hear how it all fell apart for Kerry on Good Morning America this morning with Charlie Gibson.
All right, let’s go to the tape now. We head to Good Morning, America today. Charlie Gibson begins by saying, ‘Senator Kerry, in 1984, to the present, you have said a number of times — as Brian Ross pointed out here in our investigative report — said as recently as Friday in the Los Angeles Times — said a number of times you didn’t throw away the Vietnam medals themselves but now this interview from 1971 shows up in which you say that was the medals themselves that were thrown away.’
KERRY: No, I don’t. That is absolutely incorrect. Charlie, I stood up in front of the nation. There were dozens of cameras there, television cameras. There were, I don’t know, 20, 30 still photographers. Thousands of people — and I stood up in front of the country, reached into my shirt, visibly for the nation to see, and took the ribbons off my chest, said a few words, and threw them over the fence. The file footage, the reporter there from the Boston Globe, everybody got it correctly, and I never asserted otherwise. What I said was — and back then, you know, ribbons, medals were absolutely interchangeable. The U.S. Navy pamphlet calls them ‘medals.’ We all referred to them as the symbols. They were representing medals, ribbons. Countless veterans threw their ribbons back. The Republicans have spent $60 million in the last few weeks trying to attack me, and this comes from a president and a Republican Party that can’t even answer whether or not he showed up for duty in the National Guard [sic].
RUSH: So Gibson says, ‘Well, senator, I was there 33 years ago, and I saw you throw medals over the fence and we didn’t find out till later that they were someone else’s medals.’
KERRY: No, you didn’t see me throw — wrong —
GIBSON: — someone else’s medals —
KERRY: Charlie — Charlie, you’re wrong. That is not what happened. I threw my ribbons across, and all you have to do —
GIBSON: And someone else’s medals.
KERRY: — file footage —
GIBSON: And someone else’s medals.
KERRY: Later — after — excuse me. Excuse me, Charlie. After the ceremony was over, I had a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart given to me — one Purple Heart by a veteran in the VA in New York and a Bronze Star by an older veteran of World War II in Massachusetts — and I threw them over because they asked me to. I never — never —
KERRY: Charlie, this is a phony controversy.
GIBSON: — that the military makes no distinction between ribbons and medals, but you’re the one who made the distinction. In 1984 —
KERRY: No, we made no distinction back then, Charlie. We made no distinction in 1971.
GIBSON: But in 1984 —
RUSH: Now, again, you have to understand. You’re probably saying, “Why was Gibson doing it this? ” Peter Jennings. You have to understand, John Kerry lied to Peter Jennings back in December when he said that he only threw away his ribbons because everybody found this 1971 interview in which Kerry says he threw his medals away. So Peter Jennings was used; he got lied to; he was used by Kerry to peddle a myth, and it’s payback time! So let’s stay with the audio from Good Morning America. Gibson says, “Look, I just want to ask the question, in ’84 when you were running for the Senate. That was the first time you called someone in from labor because they were upset that you’d thrown ribbons away. You called them and you made a distinction, you said, ‘I didn’t throw my medals away. I just threw the ribbons away.’ You made the distinction.”
VOICE: I was asked specifically in greater detail about what took place, and I answered the question truthfully, which was exactly consistent with what happened in 1971. I mean, Charlie, go back and get the file footage. There were millions of people watching on television. I stood up in front —
RUSH: Stop the tape! Let’s go get it! Let’s go get the file footage. Let’s see him. Whatever he’s throwing, it’s a medal or a ribbon. Who cares? He’s throwing his decorations back. He’s saying (raspberry) on the U.S. government. Do it! Go get it, senator. Let’s see you get the file footage. You’re challenging people to do this; somebody is going to do it. This is the worst time in the world for you to be seen throwing medals that you were awarded back to your government here in the middle of the war on terror, but let’s go get it. Let’s go get the file footage. Let’s find out whose medals you through whose ribbons you threw. It’s all the same thing, anyway. You were participating in a protest against your government and you’re trying to hedge it.
He’s trying to hedge it. ‘Aaaaah, it was just my ribbons, somebody else’s medals, it wasn’t mine,’ then he admits it was his medals because in that interview it would look good for him to say it was his medals. Who cares? The point is he has now issued the challenge, ‘Go get file footage.’ Well, let’s go get it. Let’s put it in a Bush commercial: ‘John Kerry has asked that you see this.’ I’m going to make you a bet. I bet you we’ll don’t have to wait for a Bush commercial, and I’ll bet you we don’t have to wait for the Republicans or Kerry. I’ll bet you ABC does it tonight. I will bet that you this is not over. I will bet you that we see file footage somewhere on ABC tonight, the file footage John Kerry is demanding everybody look at, and we will see whatever he’s throwing. It’s something — medals, ribbons, what have you. Here’s the rest of what he said.
KERRY: — the nation and I took the ribbons off my chest just as other veterans did. This is a phony controversy. This is is being pushed yesterday by Karen Hughes of the White House on Fox. It shows up out of several different stations at the same time, the Republicans are running ten million dollars this week to attack my credentials on defense. This comes from a president who can’t even show or prove that he showed up for duty in the National Guard [sic].
RUSH: John, it doesn’t come from President Bush. This comes from Peter Jennings. This is what you’ve got to understand. But wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. I know what you’re saying, ‘Wait a minute. John Kerry is the guy who said this shouldn’t be a factor in whether somebody served or not. He said that on the floor of the Senate when he was defending Bill Clinton against draft-dodging charges.’ Remember that? Kerry said, ‘This stuff is irrelevant, doesn’t matter.’ Now all of a sudden he said he had nothing to do with the attacks on Bush and his National Guard service, and now in two consecutive bites he closes the same way: ‘This comes from a president who can’t even show or prove he showed up for duty in the National Guard.’ That’s a memorized phrase he was given by his handlers to make sure he kept repeating on this show. It’s the only answer they’ve got.
All right, let’s take a moment summarize where we are, ladies and gentlemen, before we resume audio sound bites from this morning’s Good Morning America. John Kerry lied about atrocities when he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee way back when. He claimed that he had committed all these atrocities and that other soldiers he had no seen commit them had themselves committed them. He lied about atrocities when he appeared on Meet the Press in the early 1970’s. He lied about throwing his medals or his ribbons or somebody else’s ribbons or he didn’t do it at all, or just said, ‘Look at the file footage’ over the White House fence.
And what bothers me about this is that all these lies were used back then to undermine our war effort in Vietnam while we had hundreds of thousands of soldiers on the battlefield. He did this to promote himself within the media and to lay the groundwork for a political career while lying about himself and other people, and that’s the crux of this. Lie on top of lie, large and small, to promote himself at the expense of others — and now he’s essentially seen to it that all of this has been brought back to life in the midst of yet another war. Just amazing. We new resuuuume, ladies and gentlemen, with the John Kerry collapse on Good Morning, America today.
Charlie Gibson nails him on some other versions of the story, and Kerry responds by going after George Bush. Charlie Gibson says, ‘Well, let me ask you two other things that you’ve said subsequent to that. In 1985 you said to the Washington Post…’ I mean, ABC is prepared here, folks. One lie to Peter Jennings — one lie to Peter Jennings — and, look, the whole force of a network news division was brought down sort of like a bomb, sort of like a neutron bomb: destroys Kerry but leaves everybody else on the set standing was brought to bear on Kerry today. He says, ‘You said in 1985 to the Washington Post, ‘It’s such a personal thing. I didn’t want to throw my medals away.’ Then in 1996 you said to the Boston Globe, ‘I didn’t bring my own medals to throw because I didn’t have time to go home and get ’em.’ Well, which one was it, senator? Did you want to throw the medals away or not?’
KERRY: I’ve expressed that there was great sort of sense of wrenching about the whole thing. Many of us — we had a long argument the night before, Charlie, it’s a matter of record, as to how we were going to do it, and a vote was taken. I was not in favor of throwing them over the fence. I thought we ought to lay them on the table and put them in front of people in a way that, you know, wouldn’t be as challenging to many Americans. Other veterans felt otherwise. They took a vote; the vote was made; they voted to throw. I threw my ribbons. I didn’t have my medals. It’s very simple, and what the Republicans are trying to do is make this into an issue because they have no record to run on. They can’t go out and talk about jobs or health care or the environment so they’re going to attack 35 years ago.
RUSH: Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop! This is just unbelievable. Can we go look at just a couple of things here? “Can’t talk about jobs.” Jobs are going through the roof here. Job creation is going through the roof. “Can’t talk about health care.” What’s the knew Medicare drug entitlement that just got passed? The environment? Less than one-third of the people care about it as an issue on which their vote will turn.
KERRY: — in an unprecedented attack, they sent congressmen to the floor of the Senate — of the House — to attack me on the anniversary of my speech. George W. Bush has yet to explain to America whether or not, and tell the truth, about whether he showed up for duty. [sic] I’m not going to get attacked on something that I did that is a matter of record that the press saw that I did in front of the entire nation, and everyone then understood there was no distinction. We threw away the symbols of the war. I’m proud I stood up and fought against it, proud I took on Richard Nixon, and I think to this day there’s no distinction between the two.
Bush didn’t say all this! You did, senator — and you lied to Peter Jennings. This is worse than lying to the Supreme Court. This is worse than lying to a Palm Beach State Attorney. This is worse than lying to the FBI. This is worse than what Martha Stewart did. You lied to Peter Jennings. That’s why you’re in the vise grips of ABC News today, senator, and there’s no way out. There’s no way out. You lied! If you would have just stuck with what you did, but you can’t. [Kerry sing-song voice:] “I voted before it, before I voted against it.” That’s John Kerry in a nutshell. [Kerry sing-song voice:] “I was for abortion before I was against it,” — or, “No, I was against it before I was for it, and my wife is still against it, but she’s never had to vote.”
Give us a break. [Kerry sing-song voice:] “When I was doooown there in Louisiaaaana, why, I felt like I was back home in the Mekong Deeeelta. It’s a good thing I wasn’t armed down there; I could have flashed back and started firing at peeeeople.” He’s going to throw away the symbols of war why not throw some guns over the fence? I mean, seriously. Symbols of war are the honors that you got? Throw away the guns! You know, throw some guns over. Throw some ammo or whatever over the fence. What is this throwing your ribbons away? Here’s more Kerry from 1971. Let’s go back. This is what got him in trouble. He’s on the Mall here. He’s saying clearly he returned his medals. This is John Kerry, 1971, Washington, on the mall, in a speech to fellow Vietnam War protesters.
KERRY: This administration forced us to return our medals because beyond the perversion of the war, these leaders themselves denied us the integrity those symbols supposedly gave our lives.
RUSH: That’s typical: blame everybody else. You know, you went there (Vietnam) on your own. You deserve credit for that, but when these atrocities that you were made to commit happen, you didn’t report them at the time. You were under orders to report these kinds of atrocities, senator, but you didn’t do it while you were there. You waited till you came back from the safety of a Senate congressional hearing room and the Meet the Press studio and then you launched about what you saw and what you did and then you lied about what other soldiers did, but you didn’t report it at the time. You allowed it, therefore, to continue, if it happened at all. If it happened at all. I mean, if you really murdered all these innocent people, blew up all these towns and so forth, senator, how can you live with yourself? It’s Nixon’s fault? Is that what it is? (laughing) Is that where we’re headed? And now here he is in April of 2001, an unidentified reporter asks him why he didn’t throw his own medals over the fence at the protest.
KERRY: I didn’t have them with me. It was very simple. I hadn’t had time to go home.
RUSH: Is that, is that not… can we not infer from this that he had his medals with him, he would have thrown them? So can we stay where we are here? I can’t keep up with it. I’ve lost track now, and I have it written down in front of me. I am a highly trained broadcast specialist. I have the details in a timeline right in front of me. I’ve lost my place. He says he didn’t throw his medals over because they weren’t there; hey were at home. That’s what we just heard him say. “I didn’t have them with me. It was very simple. I hadn’t had time to go home.” So he threw his ribbons. But he’s told others he did throw his medals. Then, no, it wasn’t his medals. It was somebody else’s medals and to go look at the file footage. And here’s John Kerry on the Senate floor in 1992 — when Clinton was their candidate — saying that we ought not divide America over who served and how in Vietnam, yet he keeps bringing up Bush and the National Guard today when on Good Morning America.
KERRY: We do not need to divide America over who served and how. I have personally always believed that many serves in many different ways.
RUSH: This was to defend Clinton, but now that the heat is on from ABC News, it’s time to blame Bush. So essentially I guess what we’re left with here on this whole medals vs. ribbons controversy is, he did throw his medals over before not throwing them over, and he didn’t throw his because he didn’t have them because they were at home, and he couldn’t go home to get them and get back in time so he took some buddies, he grabbed their medals and threw them then he also threw his ribbons over, but he didn’t throw his medals; he only threw his ribbons. This is a Republican plot hatched by Karen Hughes because George Bush did not serve and nobody can find out whether he served in the National Guard or not, and John Kerry is not going to put up with this anymore.
END TRANSCRIPT
<*ICON*>Your Resource for Combating the Partisan Media, Liberals and Bush-Haters…
(…Rush’s John F. Kerry Stack of Stuff packed with quotes, flips & audio!)