New Orleans, LA — A press availability aboard Sen. John McCain’s plane got extremely heated Friday when a reporter attempted to ask the presumptive Republican nominee about his 2004 conversation about becoming Sen. John Kerry’s running mate.

Before New York Times reporter Elisabeth Bumiller was able to complete her question about whether Kerry had directly contacted McCain about being his running mate, McCain interrupted her and took issue with the topic.

“Everybody knows that I had a private conversation. Everybody knows that. That I had a conversation. There’s no living American in Washington that (doesn’t) know that, there’s no one,” McCain said during a flight from Atlanta to New Orleans. “And you know it too. You know it. No, you know it. You know it. So I don’t even know why you ask.”

The question was spurred by McCain’s comments during an Atlanta town hall meeting Friday morning where he responded to a question about whether he would consider Kerry as a vice president given that the Massachusetts Democrat had made those overtures in 2004. McCain quickly dismissed the question, noting that he and Kerry had major policy differences in 2004 and still do, so there was no chance he would ever consider former Democratic presidential nominee for his number 2.

“So when I was approached, when we had that conversation back in 2004, I mean that’s why I never even considered such a thing,” McCain said at the town hall meeting.

While the fact that the Kerry campaign had contacted McCain about a VP slot is well documented, Bumiller said she could not find a previous account of a direct conversation ever taking place, and queried McCain about the nature of that conversation. She immediately struck a nerve, as McCain repeatedly refused to further discuss the topic at one point asking Bumiller, “so do you have a question on another issue?”

McCain’s GOP rivals tried to use the Kerry overture against him during the primary in an attempt to paint McCain as a liberal–with the Mitt Romney campaign going so far as to create a Kerry-McCain header for press releases.

Here is the exchange from the plane:
Elisabeth Bumiller: Senator can I ask you about Senator Kerry. I just went back and looked at our story, the Times story, and you told Sheryl Stolberg that you had never had a conversation with Kerry about being, about Vice President -

McCain: Everybody knows that I had a private conversation. Everybody knows that. That I had a conversation. There’s no living American in Washington -

Bumiller: OK.

McCain: - that knows that, there’s no one.

Bumiller: OK.

McCain: And you know it too. You know it. No, you know it. You know it. So I don’t even know why you ask.

Bumiller: Well I ask because I just read-

McCain: You do know it. You do know it.

Bumiller: Because I just read in the Times in May of ‘04 you said.

McCain: I don’t know what you may have read or heard of, I don’t know the circumstances. Maybe in May of 04 I hadn’t had the conversation -

Bumiller: But do you recall the conversation?

McCain: I don’t know, but it’s well known that I had the conversation. It is absolutely well known by everyone. So do you have a question on another issue? (SEE MORE AFTER JUMP)

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