Chung 'shocked' at Condit reticence

MODESTO, California (CNN) -- ABC's Connie Chung said Friday she was "incredulous" that Rep. Gary Condit was not more forthcoming in his first broadcast interview about the Chandra Levy case.

"I was completely shocked," said Chung, who conducted the 30-minute interview Thursday. "I was incredulous."

In the interview, Condit refused to tell Chung whether he had a sexual affair with the missing Washington intern, said allegations that he asked another woman to cover up an affair with him were lies and that he has no idea what happened to Levy.

It was Condit's first interview since Levy vanished nearly four months ago.

Chung said Condit's letter to more than 200,000 of his constituents, mailed out Wednesday, had given her an indication the seven-term California Democrat would reveal more details than he did.

"I will be interviewed on television and hopefully I will be able to answer questions that help people understand," Condit wrote. "It is not something I look forward to. But things have gone on long enough."

But when Chung asked Condit, a 53-year-old married man with two grown children, about his relationship with the 24-year-old former Bureau of Prisons intern, he gave an answer he repeated four times during the interview.

"I've been married 34 years. I have not been a perfect man. I have made mistakes in my life," he said.

"I came to realize that this was something that he was going to say practically verbatim," Chung said. "I was struggling during the interview, trying to come to grips with the fact that this was his answer."

Chung said she found Condit to be very tense when the two first met, about an hour before the taping. She said the congressman even confessed he was reluctant to proceed.

The tension subsided when the two made small talk, taping a segment in which they walked down a road and then finally sitting down for the interview, Chung said. But the atmosphere changed once the cameras began rolling.

"About the third or fourth question in, I could feel the tension and I think everyone in the room could feel the tension," she said. "I don't think that subsided until the interview was over, and even after that, although he was rather friendly, polite and gracious with me afterwards."