Hart Admits ‘Mistake’ but Denies Immorality : Calls Newspaper Account Misleading, Declines to Tell His Version of Encounter With Actress

Fighting for survival as a presidential candidate, Gary Hart conceded Tuesday that he made “a mistake” by behaving in a way that could be misunderstood during his encounter last weekend with actress Donna Rice. But he declared that he “absolutely did not” do anything “immoral.”

In his first public appearance since the Miami Herald’s account of the episode was published Sunday, Hart declined to provide his own version of the events. Instead, after acknowledging error, he sought to quell the furor that threatens his front-running candidacy for the Democratic nomination by focusing on the newspaper’s handling of the story. He branded it as “false and misleading.”

‘Of Course I Did’

“Did I make a mistake by putting myself in circumstances that could be misconstrued? Of course I did. That goes without saying,” Hart said in a six-minute statement on the affair at a luncheon meeting of the American Newspaper Publishers Assn.

“But did I do anything immoral. I absolutely did not,” he said.

In attacking the Herald’s handling of the episode, Hart charged that the story was based on “spotty surveillance” of his and Rice’s movements in and out of his town house in Washington’s Capitol Hill section.

And, “most outrageously,” Hart said, the reporters had refused an offer to interview “the very people who could have given them the facts before filing their story, which we asked and urged them to do.”

Answering Hart’s charge that the Herald had refused an offer to interview the other participants in the episode, the Herald’s political editor, Tom Fiedler, who wrote the story, said that Hart himself refused a request by the Herald team to interview Rice and Lynn Armandt, her woman companion.

Fiedler acknowledged that he later received a call from Hart’s friend and political associate, William Broadhurst, who accompanied Hart, Rice and Armandt during part of the weekend and contends that Rice and the other woman actually spent the night at his Washington home. Broadhurst offered a possible chance to interview the two women, but Fiedler said that the offer was conditioned on the Herald’s delaying publication of the story.

The setting for Hart’s appearance was freighted with dramatic irony. In depicting himself as a victim of sloppy and sensationalistic journalism, Hart chose as his forum an assemblage of leaders of the very institution that had allegedly wronged him: more than 1,500 editors and publishers of the nation’s newspapers gathered in the Grand Ballroom of New York’s Waldorf Astoria.

Standing on the podium in a blue suit, with a blue and red striped tie, the 50-year-old former Colorado senator read his comments on the fateful weekend in a low, intense voice. Later, after delivering a previously prepared address on economic policy, he answered questions for almost half an hour--nearly all of them dealing with the “womanizing” issue.

During the question period, Hart rejected a request that he give his own version of what had taken place, saying: “I don’t intend to go back over it all.”

Wife in Colorado

According to the Herald account, based on observations by a team of reporters who staked out Hart’s town house after receiving a tip, Hart and Rice spent at least substantial parts of last Friday night and Saturday together in the residence. At the time, Hart’s wife, Lee, was in Colorado.

Hart, Rice and officials in the Hart campaign have said that she was in the town house only briefly Friday night and left by a rear exit--apparently unobserved by the Herald reporters, who have acknowledged gaps in their surveillance. Hart and Rice have not denied spending time together Friday and Saturday but have said that they have no personal relationship.

Hart first met Rice at a party in Aspen, Colo., during the Christmas holidays. Later, Rice has said, Hart invited her on a day trip by boat to Bimini, an island off the coast of Florida, with Broadhurst and Armandt. The boat was unable to return to Florida until the next day, but Rice said the women slept on one boat, Hart and Broadhurst on another.

‘High Standard’

Hart, who entered national politics as manager of George S. McGovern’s ill-fated Democratic presidential campaign in 1972 and vaulted to prominence after his own surprisingly strong underdog bid for the 1984 Democratic nomination, said: “Since the very first day I entered public life, I’ve always held myself to a high standard of public and private conduct.”

But he conceded that the current furor had taught him that “for some of us in public life even the most commonplace and appropriate behavior can be misconstrued by some to be improper.

“This just means that I have to raise my own personal standard even higher.”

Hart contended that what is at stake is not just the presidential office he seeks but the future of the nation. “Our whole system is at issue here, not just a candidate or an individual campaign,” he said. And he sought to persuade his audience of journalists that they too have a stake in his battle to overcome the reaction to the damning implications of the Herald’s story.

Cites ‘Real Issue’

“As I struggle to retain my integrity and my honor--and believe me I will--I hope you will also struggle to save our political system from all of its worst instincts,” he said. “That is the real issue. Not one person’s public career but a nation’s public life.”

In the question period after his remarks, which came after his economics speech and an address by Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, an unannounced Republican presidential candidate, Hart was reminded that because of allegations of “womanizing” on his part, he had challenged reporters to follow his movements.

“If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They’d be very bored,” Hart had said in an interview for an article published in the New York Times Magazine before the Herald story broke.

In view of those comments, a questioner asked, “If a misunderstanding took place, whose fault is that?”

‘Complete Scrutiny’

“I did invite the closest possible scrutiny,” Hart conceded, “But when you ask for scrutiny, you want complete scrutiny, you want all the facts known before a story is printed.”

Hart was also pressed for details about the telephone conversations he has acknowledged having with Rice over several weeks before their meeting in Washington.

There had been “half a dozen or so” long-distance calls, Hart said, but they mainly dealt with Rice’s offer “to be helpful in the campaign in terms of fund-raising” through her contacts in the entertainment business.

“She was seeking information about who she should talk to in the campaign and how she should go about marshaling those forces and effort of those friends that she had. And those were the substance of the discussions.”

Hart had to face what was probably the toughest challenge of his political career without his wife, from whom he has been separated twice during their marriage of almost 30 years. A Hart aide, William Shore, said that Lee Hart, who generally accompanies her husband on campaign trips, was suffering from a sinus infection and had stayed in Denver.

When asked about her reaction to the weekend controversy, Shore said the Harts had discussed it last Saturday night. “They had a long talk,” Shore said. “She understands completely. She was very sympathetic. She’s fine.”

A high-placed source in the Hart campaign said Tuesday night that Lee Hart will hold a news conference in Colorado today and will then join Hart on the campaign trail in New Hampshire. The source also said that Hart is considering holding a press conference in New Hampshire this afternoon.

Serious Qualifications

Among Hart’s audience of professional observers, some praised his performance, but with serious qualifications. “He did better than I would have thought it possible,” said Katharine Graham, chairman of the Washington Post Co. “He dug himself part of the way out. But his judgment is still in question.”

B. Dale Davis, editor and publisher of the Santa Barbara News-Press, said: “I think he has an extremely difficult job trying to overcome what he’s faced with. And there’ll be more coming out.”

Said Francis LeBlanc of the Gardner (Mass.) News: “I don’t think he’s eliminated his problem. He still avoided the specifics.”

George Arwady, editor and publisher of the Muskegon (Mich.) Chronicle, took a slightly more optimistic view from Hart’s standpoint. “I think it will hurt him in the short run,” he said. “But in the long run, it won’t matter so much.”

Rick Wakefield, publisher of four newspapers in Concord, N.H., said: “I think probably there is nothing improper here.” But he added: “The voters of New Hampshire will make up their own minds.”