CERES, Calif. — From California to Capitol Hill, Rep. Gary Condit was harshly criticized Friday for his guarded and sometimes evasive interviews about his relationship with Chandra Levy.
The House minority leader, Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri, called his fellow Democrat's statements "disturbing and wrong."
Condit was not "candid and forward," Gephardt said of the congressman's widely viewed televised interview Thursday night. "He stayed in this zone of being evasive."
Gephardt, who spoke with St. Louis Post-Dispatch writers, also said he would talk to House Democrats about possible action against Condit, which could include removing him from the House Intelligence Committee.
The congressman said he plans to seek re-election to an eighth term next year but won't make an official announcement for several months.
No one has been charged in Levy's disappearance from her Washington apartment nearly four months ago. Condit, 53, has acknowledged a relationship with the Bureau of Prisons intern from his district, and he has been questioned four times by police.
After months of public silence, Condit told ABC's Connie Chung that he had nothing to do with Levy's disappearance and repeatedly sidestepped questions about whether he and the 24-year-old woman had a sexual relationship. He did not offer the apology many constituents said they were looking for.
The Levy family lawyer said Friday that her parents were angry and believe Condit is "hiding something." Washington police also disputed Condit's claim he had cooperated completely, saying they had to drag some information from him.
Condit's attorney, Abbe Lowell, said on CNN's Larry King Live that Condit would need more time to "change perceptions that people got built up over three months."
Lowell also criticized Chung for repeatedly pressing Condit on whether he and Levy had a sexual relationship. Condit said the two had a "close" relationship and that he is a married man who has made mistakes.
"I think Americans get it, I really do," Lowell said, adding that it would be inappropriate to discuss intimate details on national television.
Rep. Cal Dooley, a fellow Democrat who represents a district adjacent to Condit's, said his colleague "owes his constituents and the Levys much, much more than he gave them last night."
"Gary Condit had a responsibility last night to be forthcoming, but instead he chose evasion," Dooley said. "I had expected that he would apologize for his actions to the Levy family and to his constituents, but he did not. I had hoped that he would be willing to acknowledge the impropriety of his behavior over the last few months, but he was not."
The wave of anti-Condit reaction began Thursday after constituents received his letter attempting to explain his relationship with Levy. It carried over to his interviews with ABC, a Sacramento TV station and People magazine.
"It was a public relations disaster," said Nancy Snow, a political analyst at the University of California at Los Angeles. Instead of helping himself, she said, Condit was "just a guy having a meltdown."
Snow said politicians have made comebacks, but added, "I don't know if he'll do that. He just didn't come across as a likable person."
Some of Condit's constituents said they wanted to hear an apology or more remorse.
"Every decision that he has made to date smacks of putting his own interests first and that is not something that you expect of somebody you elect to represent you," said John Mensonides, 37, a financial adviser from Modesto.
Sandra Lucas, a Democratic leader in Modesto and Condit supporter, disagreed. She said Condit doesn't thrive in front of a camera but does better in parades, barbecues and personal meetings.
"A year from an election is a lifetime," Lucas said. "He has the opportunity to resurrect himself, but it's going to take a hell of a lot of work."
In an interview with the Merced Sun-Star, Condit said it might have been a mistake not to have spoken out earlier.
"In hindsight, maybe I should've," he said. "Maybe people wouldn't have been so critical of me. But I did everything that I thought I was supposed to do as an American citizen."
Democrats redrawing state congressional districts with new population figures have said they have maps that move Condit's district farther north, away from the conservative Democrats and Republicans he has long represented and toward the more blue-collar Democratic city of Stockton.