Transcript: Sen. Kerry Interview

Sept. 29, 2004 -- Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry says when he meets President George W. Bush at this week's much-anticipated debate he's looking forward to tearing apart the idea that he's a "flip-flopper" on important issues.

"I think their advertising and their effort over these last months — to use that word — have been particularly successful. I give them credit for it. But it doesn't reflect the truth," the Massachusetts senator told ABC News' Diane Sawyer.

"See, what the Republicans do — and they love to do it and they're very good at it and they've spent millions of dollars doing it — is just find a little sentence here and find a little sentence there and take it out of context," he said. "That's why I look forward to this debate, because it's anopportunity to be able to really let the American people know the truth and know where you stand."

For more of Kerry's interview, watch Good Morning America on Thursday, Sept. 30, at 7 a.m. ET.

$87 Billion Misunderstanding?

One of the Bush ads Kerry has battled most in his effort to fight the "flip-flop" label refers to the senator's vote on an $87 billion aid package to provide equipment for U.S. troops and to support reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the ad, Kerry is quoted as saying "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it."

Kerry says the ad's quick soundbite doesn't fairly portray what actually occured. Kerry said the ad ignores the fact that he initially supported the appropriation when it was to be funded at least in part by rolling back tax cuts for the wealthy. He says he ended up voting against the final version of the bill in the Senate as a protest over its funding — which included no-bid contracts.

"It just was a very inarticulate way of saying something, and I had one of those inarticulate moments late in the evening when I was dead tired in the primaries and I didn't say something very clearly," Kerry said of the quote.