U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes acknowledged Tuesday that he told a North Carolina crowd that "liberals hate real Americans that work and accomplish and achieve and believe in God."

Hayes initially denied making the statement at a rally for GOP presidential hopeful John McCain, first reported by the New York Observer, but now says he didn't mean for it to come out that way.

"I genuinely did not recall making the statement and, after reading it, there is no doubt that it came out completely the wrong way. I actually was trying to work to keep the crowd as respectful as possible, so this is definitely not what I intended," Hayes said in a statement.

When Politico linked to the Observer story on Monday evening, Hayes spokeswoman Amanda Little called and denied the report. Observer reporter Jason Horowitz told Politico he stood firmly behind the story.

On Tuesday, two more reporters and two other witnesses confirmed the quote, but Little continued to deny it, calling the story "irresponsible journalism." Little said that she had just as many sources who would deny it, including Hayes staff and GOP U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry, who spoke before Hayes.

However, an audio file of the Hayes quote from radio reporter Lisa Miller of WFAE confirmed the statement. Little then said Hayes must have misspoken.

Hayes had been warming up a crowd when he made the remark. Hayes set up his comment by saying that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, was a "real American." McCain later appeared at the rally.

Before Hayes' comment, he had told the crowd that he wanted to "make sure we don't say something stupid, make sure we don't say something we don't mean."

Hayes' comment came a few days after Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., told MSNBC's Chris Matthews that the media should investigate which members of Congress are "anti-America" and which are "pro-America." Hayes faces Democrat Larry Kissell in November. (Ryan Grim, POLITICO.COM, 10/21/08).