Breaking News.
I did not see any walk back.
I saw a hack who refused to answer any questions.
What is he hiding?
Who?
Having just now viewed the actual interview, I’d love to have the “body language lady” view & comment on it. It looked pretty sketchy to me, personally.
He's a pretty solid conservative (although a bit wet for my tastes on some issue). He was Foreign Minister (our equivalent of your Secretary of State) during Prime Minister John Howard's (our most conservative Prime Minister in decades) long premiership from 1996 until 2007, our longest serving Foreign Minister, in fact.
He is not just some hack diplomat.
I have always had doubts about this story that Downer met with Papadopoulos and had the conversation described (which was a story that first appeared in the New York Times and hasn't as far as I can see been confirmed by any reliable source) was accurate. I certainly can't say for certain one way or the other, but it does seem to have been simply accepted as factual based on very little evidence at all.
Note, I am not saying it isn't true. I think it's possible. But it could also be very wrong. There's no real evidence either way from what I can see.