Everybody knows that Tony Bennett left his heart in San Francisco. Now we just have to figure out where he left his memory.
A spokesman for former President George W. Bush disputed claims made earlier by the singer that he had discussed the Iraq War with the former president, with Bush admitting it was a mistake to him.
"This account is flatly wrong," the spokesperson told NBC Nightly News.
Bennett, who celebrated his 85th birthday Sunday, drew flack Monday when he appeared on Howard Stern's radio show and told his story about the former president.
Bennett told Stern that Bush admitted the screw-up at the 2005 Kennedy Center Honors awards ceremony. According to Bennett, "He told me personally that night, he said, 'I think I made a mistake.'"
During the Stern appearance, Bennett, a World War II veteran, also laid blame on the United States for the 9/11 attacks, opining that the USA's actions in the Middle East had provoked the terrorists.
"But who are the terrorists? Are we the terrorists or are they the terrorists? Two wrongs don’t make a right,” Bennett posited. “They flew the plane in, but we caused it. Because we were bombing them, and they told us to stop.”
Reacting to the furor, Bennett admitted to his own boo-boo via his Facebook page Tuesday. “I am so grateful to be an American and as a World War II veteran, I was proud to fight to protect our values, which have made America the greatest country on the planet," he posted.
Bennett went on to add that there is "simply no excuse for terrorism" and concluded, "I am sorry if my statements suggested anything other than an expression of my love for my country, my hope for humanity and my desire for peace throughout the world.”
In the digital mea culpa, Bennett noted that his experience in World War II in marching with civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. had "made me a life-long humanist and pacifist, and reinforced my belief that violence begets violence and that war is the lowest form of human behavior."
