Kerry in Medals Meltdown, Slams Bush National Guard Record

An angry-sounding John Kerry denied Monday morning that he ever claimed to have thrown away his three Purple Hearts and two medals for combat valor during an April 1971 anti-war demonstration, blaming Republicans for the new controversy and blasting President Bush's National Guard record.

"This comes from a president and a Republican Party that can't even answer whether or not he showed up for duty in the National Guard," a seething Kerry told "Good Morning America's" Charlie Gibson.

Kerry was responding to a 1971 interview unearthed by ABC News in which he told WRC-TV that he "gave back" somewhere between six and nine of his medals during a Washington, D.C., demonstration days earlier. News coverage of the episode shows Kerry and other Vietnam veterans throwing medals onto the steps of the Capitol building.

When pressed by WRC on whether the medals he "gave back" included his Purple Hearts and his other medals for valor, he replied, "Well, above that, I gave back my others."

But Kerry insisted to GMA that there was nothing to the story, and again tried to shift the focus to President Bush.

"This is being pushed yesterday by Karen Hughes in the White House on Fox. It shows up on several different stations at the same time," he complained. "This comes from a president who can't even show or prove that he showed up for duty in the National Guard. And I'm not going to stand for it."

As Gibson continued to press Kerry for answers, the Democratic presidential candidate raised Bush's service record for a third time.

"George Bush has yet to explain to America whether or not - and tell the truth about whether he showed up for duty. I'm not going to get attacked on something that I did that is a matter of record."

Challenged on the discrepancy between what he told WRC and what he says now, Kerry told Gibson, "Back then, ribbons, medals were absolutely interchangeable," insisting that he never said he had returned his combat medals.

For more Kerry statements, see John Kerry: On the Record

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