Kerry: No Time for Terror Briefing, Teresa Opposes Abortion
On the campaign trail, Sen. John Kerry insists that he would do a better job fighting the war on terror than President Bush. But the Massachusetts Democrat admitted Thursday night that he hasn't been able to find the time to accept the Bush administration's offer to give him an intelligence briefing.
"Well, I haven't been briefed yet," he told CNN's "Larry King Live." "They have offered to brief me; I just haven't had time."
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Asked what he would do differently in the Iraq war upon taking office, Kerry said he'd seek the help of countries like France and Arab nations.
"I would immediately reach out with personal diplomacy to those countries on the sidelines today," he explained. "At the right moment I would certainly go to Europe and meet with allies and do the diplomacy necessary to find a way to bring people to the table here."
Asked if he would withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq, Kerry expressly rejected the idea, telling CNN: "No. I think that what we need to do is guarantee that there is a stable, long-term, transformational Iraq in place."
The Democratic presidential hopeful offered a bizarre response when asked whether abortion was a moral issue.
"Sure it is," he told CNN. "I mean, being for choice does not mean you are for abortion. Neither Teresa nor I are for abortion."
Kerry said nothing about his wife's decision to go through with her own abortion in 1984 before she miscarried what she thought would be a deformed baby the night before the procedure.
Mrs. Heinz Kerry, who was sitting next to her husband as he answered, was likewise mum about the episode, which she detailed in May for People Magazine and ABC News.
In comments that could rankle her party's favorite Democrat, Heinz Kerry said she didn't think most Americans would bother to read Bill Clinton's recently released memoir.
"It's so long. ... I just don't know how many people out there are going to read it," she said. "I think the people that will buy it to read it already know what they think, and they're already interested in either just them or politics."
Asked if she had read the Clinton book, Heinz said, "I haven't got the time right now."
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