Kerry Defends Wife's 'Shove It' Comment

POSTED: 10:55 pm EDT July 25, 2004

BOSTON -- Comments made by Teresa Heinz Kerry following a pre-Democratic National Convention event are eliciting plenty of response Monday afternoon.

Heinz Kerry, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, urged home-state delegates from Pennsylvania to restore a more civil tone to American politics in a speech Sunday night.

Video

Watch The Exchange, Reaction By McNickle, Rendell

Teresa Heinz-Kerry's Interview With Sally Wiggin (April 2004)

"We need to turn back some of the creeping, un-Pennsylvanian and sometimes un-American traits that are coming into some of our politics," Heinz Kerry said during a reception at the Massachusetts Statehouse.

Minutes later, in an exchange that was captured on camera by Channel 4 Action News anchor Scott Baker and his photographer, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporter Colin McNickle asked Heinz Kerry what she meant by the term "un-American activity."

Heinz Kerry told McNickle, "I didn't say that," and asked him why he was putting words in her mouth. When he again asked the question, she responded, "I didn't say 'activity' or 'un-American,'" and turned away to speak with Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.

Shortly after their first exchange, Heinz Kerry went up to McNickle and asked if he worked for the Trib. He said he did, and she replied, "Of course." When he tried to question her again, she said, "You said something I didn't say. Now shove it."

"This was sheer frustration, aimed at a right-wing rag that has consistently and purposely misrepresented the facts in reporting on Mrs. Kerry and her family," Heinz Kerry's spokeswoman, Marla Romash, told Baker.

Kerry, during a Monday morning tour of the Rocket Garden at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., told reporters, "I think my wife speaks her mind appropriately."

U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, also defended Kerry's wife.

"I think a lot of Americans are going to say, 'Good for you -- you go, girl,' and that certainly is how I feel about it," Clinton said.

The Trib released a statement Monday afternoon backing McNickle, who is the editor of the newspaper's editorial page.

"Colin McNickle did just what any good reporter does -- he asked questions. And the question he posed in this instance was legitimate," said the statement by Editor Frank Craig. "The tape of Teresa Heinz Kerry's speech shows she used the word 'un-American,' even though she denied it. It is unfortunate that she ruined what was an otherwise good message by resorting to exactly the type of tactics she was criticizing."

Before the encounter with McNickle, Heinz Kerry had criticized the tone of modern political campaigns in her speech.

"I remember a time when people in political parties in Pennsylvania talked to one another and actually got things done," said Heinz Kerry, whose first husband, Republican Sen. John Heinz, died in a 1991 plane crash. "We have to go back to those days when we can do things properly for the people need it."

"My prayers for you, for me, for the country, for the world, are that we keep this at a high level, with dignity, with respect and with a great idealism and courage that took our forefathers to build this great nation," she said.

Watch Channel 4 Action News this week for extensive Democratic National Convention coverage. Anchor Scott Baker will have live updates from Boston on Channel 4 Action at 5, 6 and 11 p.m. each day. Visit ThePittsburghChannel.com several times a day for the latest Commitment 2004 coverage.

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