Hume on Kerry: "He'd have to clear everything" with Jacques Chirac

On the August 15 edition of FOX News Sunday, FOX News managing editor and chief Washington correspondent Brit Hume attempted to criticize Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry by claiming that Kerry has suggested that if elected, "he'd have to clear everything" with French President Jacques Chirac.

Hume's claim echoes numerous Bush administration, Republican, and right-wing media attempts to smear Kerry by linking him to France; these attempts include a March 17 comment by Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans that Kerry "looks French."

Kerry has neither said nor suggested that he would seek Chirac's approval of his decisions. In his July 29 acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, Kerry asserted, "I will never give any nation or international institution a veto over our national security."

From the August 15 edition of FOX News Sunday:

HUME: Now, if anybody thinks that somebody being more sensitive toward Jacques Chirac is going to -- past whom, by the way, Kerry suggests, he'd have to clear everything, because he wants all allies aboard before he does anything. I think that makes no sense, and it's unrealistic.

—J.C.