CONDIT - Appearing on 20/20 Thursday

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Condit's Breaking Silence in TV Chat

By HELEN KENNEDY and RICHARD HUFF Daily News Staff Writers

ep. Gary Condit will finally talk publicly about the disappearance of his lover Chandra Levy when he sits down for a 30-minute interview Thursday with ABC's Connie Chung.

The interview, to be taped in Condit's home district of Modesto, Calif., will break a nearly four-month public silence that has baffled colleagues and fueled widespread suspicion about his relationship with the missing intern.

It will air at 10 p.m. on "PrimeTime Thursday." "There are no ground rules," said ABC News spokesman Todd Polkes.

According to Polkes, the interview is set to be a one-on-one with Chung and Condit. There was no word yet as to whether the Democratic congressman's wife, Carolyn, will appear on the program.

Condit, who is gearing up to run for another term in 2002, is also mass-mailing a letter to his constituents and plans to give at least one print interview, aides say.

"The congressman has fully responded to all questions put to him by law enforcement authorities trying to find Ms. Levy," Condit's office said in a written statement. "He can now address in a public forum the issues that have been raised over the past three months."

In landing the interview, Chung notched one of the biggest "gets" in network news since Monica Lewinsky went public with Barbara Walters in 1999 on the news magazine "20/20" — also on ABC. Dozens of network producers were vying to land Condit.

Billy Martin, lawyer for the missing 24-year-old's parents, said he looks forward to hearing what Condit has to say for himself.

"It's been 110 days in coming. We think it's time," he said on CNBC.

But Martin said he'd rather see Condit grilled by his private eyes instead of a network anchor. "I think he's fighting more for his political life than he is helping Dr. and Mrs. Levy find their daughter," he said.

Lawyer Don Vance, a close friend of the Levys who is heading a drive to force Condit's resignation, was skeptical.

"The one question I would really like to hear him answer is: 'Why won't you sit down and speak at length with the Levys' investigators?' If he did that, he could dispel once and for all this horrible feeling they have that he's involved."

Chung, who has not covered the Levy story, nevertheless worked very hard to get the interview. "She was a dogged reporter," Polkes said.

Original Publication Date: 8/21/01

-- Anonymous, August 21, 2001


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