Did Kerry Throw Away his War Medals?

(From Fox News Channel)

Byline: Sean Hannity, Alan Colmes

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Welcome to HANNITY & COLMES. Thank you for being with us. I'm Sean Hannity. We get right to our top story tonight.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is on the defensive tonight because of allegations that he threw his Vietnam medals away at a 1971 anti-war protest.

Kerry has offered several different explanations for his actions that day, claiming once that he threw someone else's medals, while on another occasion claiming that he only threw his ribbons away.

But in a November, 1971 television interview in which Kerry is asked to explain the protest earlier that year, the future Senator seems to acknowledge that, in fact, he did toss his own medals onto the steps of the U.S. capitol.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That is a picture of one of the many veterans who came to Washington last April and decided that the last resort that they had to try and wake the country up and tell what was happening in Vietnam as well as what was happening back home to men who were veterans, was to renounce the symbols -- renounce the symbols which this country gives which supposedly reinforces all the things that they had done.

And that was the medals themselves. And so they decided to give them back to their country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many did you give back, John?

KERRY: I gave back, I can't remember. Six, seven, eight, or nine.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMEN: Well, you were awarded the Bronze Star, Silver Star and three Purple Hearts.

KERRY: That, and I gave back others.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: So could this contradiction in this story unravel the Kerry candidacy?

Joining us now, former secretary of the Navy and John Kerry supporter, John Dalton is with us.

John, this is an important issue for me, because it goes to the heart of whether or not he's an honest man.

And I have every belief -- he said in the "Los Angeles Times" just this past week, John, he said he never claimed to have thrown his own medals -- his own medals. "I never implied that. I never implied that I did that." Clearly contradicting himself. And he has several other stories in between.

What do you make all of these contradictions?

JOHN DALTON, FORMER NAVY SECRETARY: Well, Sean, I know John Kerry. I know him to be an honest man.

But let me put this in context, if I will -- if you'll allow me. This is a tough week for the Bush administration. They've got the anniversary of May 1...

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