Kerry Pushed on Claim as Reporter Corrects Quote

The Bush administration and its supporters Monday continued to pressure Sen. John F. Kerry to identify the foreign leaders he claims want him to defeat President Bush this November, adding that if he doesn’t name names, his claim must be untrue.

Meanwhile, the Kerry campaign attempted to back away from the original assertion, seizing on a reporter’s clarification.

The Boston Globe reporter who was covering a Florida fundraiser for Kerry on March 8 wrote in a pool report, which was distributed to the rest of the press corps, that Kerry said he had spoken with “foreign leaders” who had indicated they want him to beat Bush.

But on Monday, the reporter said that, upon review of his tape, he realized that Kerry had in fact said “more leaders” want him to beat Bush.

During the past week, Kerry never disputed that he was talking about foreign leaders when referring to dissatisfaction abroad with Bush. He told reporters Sunday he was talking about “people around the world” at “different levels.”

But the campaign said Monday that the Globe’s clarification demonstrates some ambiguity about what Kerry meant. His reference to “more leaders,” said Kerry’s spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter, “could mean anybody.” The media’s repeated references to “foreign leaders” allowed critics to suggest he was talking about heads of state. “He was misquoted,” said Cutter. “Had he not been misquoted, this wouldn’t be a story.”

Nonetheless, administration officials continued to pummel the presumed Democratic nominee over the originally reported comment about “foreign leaders.” On Sunday, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell called on Kerry to name the leaders in question.

And Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney, speaking at a congressional fundraiser in Phoenix, said Americans deserved to know what the Massachusetts senator had been telling leaders abroad.

“It is our business when a candidate for president claims the political endorsement of foreign leaders,” Cheney said. “At the very least, we have a right to know what he is saying to them that makes them so supportive of his candidacy.”

White House spokesman Scott McClellan, at a White House briefing, suggested several times that Kerry was “making it up.”

And Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), in a conference call arranged by the Bush-Cheney campaign, said: “He clearly has an obligation to, you know -- you put up or you shut up. You don’t make up reckless charges and then say, ‘Well, it’s really secret, I can’t tell you.’ ”

The White House, when asked about the Globe reporter’s clarification of the original remarks, said Kerry should have denounced the reported comments earlier if he had been misquoted.

“It seems to us that Sen. Kerry has affirmed the quote by his own reaction to it,” said Suzy DeFrancis, a White House spokeswoman. “ He’s had plenty of time to disavow it if he didn’t agree with it ... so I think he was clearly probably describing foreign leaders.”

The weeklong furor began with an offhand remark March 8 by Kerry at a reception for donors at an oceanside hotel in Hollywood, Fla.

The campaign allowed only one newspaper reporter into the fundraiser. Under an agreement within the press corps, that reporter, Patrick Healy, provided a description and transcript of comments at the event.

On Monday, Healy said he listened to his tape again because there had been such a strong reaction to Kerry’s remarks. In an e-mail to other members of the press corps, he said he realized he had misheard the candidate when he had originally transcribed his tape.

Kerry’s assertion was made in reaction to a comment by his Florida finance chairman, Milton Ferrell, who spoke of animosity toward Bush abroad.

“I’ve been hearing it, I’ll tell ya,” Kerry responded, according to Healy’s corrected transcription. “The news, the coverage in other countries, the news in other places. I’ve met more leaders, who can’t go out and say it all publicly, but boy, they look at you and say: ‘You gotta win this. You gotta beat this guy. We need a new policy.’ Things like that. So there is enormous energy out there.”

After fielding criticism about his comment Sunday from Powell, as well as a Republican businessman at a town hall meeting in Bethlehem, Pa., Kerry stood by his comment.

“I think what I said was that I had heard from people around the world -- leaders of people -- that look forward to the day when they have an administration they can work with,” he told reporters.

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Times staff writer Edwin Chen and Associated Press contributed to this report.