Hart Quits, Says ‘I Am Who I Am--Take It or Leave It’ : ‘Not Beaten’ but ‘Angry and Defiant’

Front-runner Gary Hart, leaving a wide-open field scrambling for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination, ended his 26-day candidacy today, driven out by “rumors and gossip” about his extramarital relationships.

“I am who I am--take it or leave it,” Hart said, telling loyal followers crowded into the ballroom of a hotel that he was “not a beaten man” but “angry and defiant” after events that forced him out of the race.

“I’ve made some mistakes,” a grim-faced Hart said. “I’ve said so. I said I would, because I’m human, and I did. Maybe big mistakes, but not bad mistakes.”

The former Colorado senator began his appearance on national television by saying he intended to do more than simply read a short statement of withdrawal.

“After frankly tossing and turning all night, as I have for the last three or four nights, I woke up about 4 or 5 this morning with a start. And I said to myself, ‘Hell, no!’ ” he said.

Cites ‘Intolerable Situation’

There was a gasp from his supporters, thinking that he might not be withdrawing after all.

But he went on to make the end of his campaign official.

The 50-year-old Hart conceded that “clearly the campaign cannot continue” because the drumfire of questions about his personal life had created an “intolerable situation” and made it impossible to reach the voters.

“I refuse to submit my family and friends and innocent people and myself to further rumors and gossip,” Hart said. “I believe I would have been a successful candidate and I know I could have been a good President . . . but apparently now we’ll never know.

“I guess I’ve become some kind of a rare bird, some extraordinary creature that has to be dissected,” he said.

26-Day Candidacy

Hart pulled out of the race 26 days, almost to the hour, after he formally announced his candidacy and began a campaign as the acknowledged leader for the nomination that barely eluded him in 1984.

But Hart’s candidacy unraveled with remarkable speed after he confirmed a Miami Herald story that he spent part of last weekend alone with 29-year-old actress-model Donna Rice in Washington.

Both Hart and Rice denied that they were having an affair but they admitted that they had also made an overnight cruise aboard a yacht to a Caribbean island in March. There, Hart said, they slept on separate boats.

Hart subsequently refused to answer questions about whether he had ever committed adultery.

Late Wednesday night, the Washington Post confronted a top Hart aide with documented evidence of a recent liaison with a Washington woman with whom he had had a long-term relationship.

‘I Cannot Be Issue’

An aide said that story “accelerated the inevitable.” Hart realized that it was futile for him to continue and returned to his rustic home in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains on Thursday to end the campaign.

Hart, who was accompanied to the announcement by his wife of 28 years, Lee, said he gave “serious thought” to not running because he feared “I was going to be the issue.

“And I cannot be the issue,” he said, “because that breaks the link between me and the voters. If someone’s able to throw up a smoke screen, and keeps it up long enough, you can’t get your message across.”

In bidding farewell to his followers, Hart said, “The torch of idealism burns brights in your hearts” and “should lead you to make your country better.

“And whoever you are and whatever you do in that cause, at least in spirit, I will be with you.”