The Democratic frontrunner for the United States elections, John Kerry, was on Friday forced into denying an unsourced internet report that he had an affair with an intern amid signs that the race for the White House is turning into one of the most vicious in modern history.
Kerry’s denial, delivered on a radio talk show, marked the first widespread public airing within the US of the allegation, which appeared on a rightwing website, the Drudge Report.
Mainstream US newspapers and media outlets had shunned the story, although it was picked up by newspapers abroad. However, there had been intense speculation about its veracity — and the origins of the rumour — as well as the possible effect on Kerry’s campaign and private life, if the story proved true.
The Massachusetts senator is married to Teresa Heinz Kerry, heir to the $550-million ketchup empire. In an interview with Elle magazine last year, she said she had told her first husband she would maim him if he had an affair.
Asked publicly for the first time on Friday whether there was truth to the rumour, Kerry issued a blanket denial.
”Well, there is nothing to report, so there is nothing to talk about. And I’m not worried about it,” he told the radio show host Don Imus. ”No. The answer is no.”
The chat-show confrontation occurred on a day when President George Bush’s job approval rating fell to a career low of 50%. The Washington Post-ABC News poll also charted a low in Bush’s ratings for honesty and trustworthiness, following a barrage of reports on his military service in the Texas national guard during the Vietnam War.
”A majority of Americans believe President Bush either lied or deliberately exaggerated evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction in order to justify war,” the Post said.
Bush’s declining popularity has caused concern within Republican circles. This week, they launched a series of attacks against Kerry, including an attempt to paint him as a Vietnam-era political ally of Jane Fonda, who angered many Americans by visiting Hanoi during the war. Fonda has said she barely met Kerry.
In his radio comments, Kerry said he expected further attacks.
”I’ve been pretty well, you know, vetted and examined from one side to the other. And I think that they’re in for a surprise. I’m going to fight back,” he said.
The Drudge Report claimed that the senator had a two-year relationship with a young woman who had fled to Africa.
Six years ago, Matt Drudge, who runs the site, helped make Monica Lewinsky a household name by revealing that Newsweek had researched, but not published, the affair with former US president Bill Clinton.
The treatment of Kerry followed a similar pattern. The website said on Thursday that television networks and news organisations had been trying to confirm rumours of a relationship between Kerry and a woman said to have worked briefly for the Associated Press. According to Drudge, the relationship started in the spring of 2001.
”After being approached by a top news producer, the woman fled to Africa, where she remains,” the website reported.
However, the provenance of the rumour was bizarre. The Drudge Report said that General Wesley Clark, who withdrew from the race for the Democratic nomination this week, had helped spread the rumour, telling reporters of a scandal that could destroy Kerry’s campaign. Clark formally endorsed Kerry’s bid for the leadership on Friday.
Kerry’s former communications chief, Chris LeHane, was also cited as a possible source for the rumour. LeHane was sacked last autumn when Kerry shook up his campaign machine, and later joined the Clark campaign. — Guardian Unlimited Â