A well-known Texas pastor and televangelist said yesterday his life's work has been "mischaracterized and attacked" in the media storm over his endorsement of Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

McCain on Thursday rejected the Rev. John Hagee's endorsement after an audio recording from the late 1990s surfaced in which the preacher suggested God sent Adolf Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land.

At a news conference yesterday at the San Antonio headquarters of his TV ministry, Hagee said parting with McCain is "best for both of us and the country." Hagee had withdrawn his McCain endorsement Thursday.

Hagee's months-old endorsement had proved problematic for McCain because of earlier controversy over the preacher's views on Roman Catholicism, including what some critics interpret as the pastor's labeling of the Catholic church as "the great whore." When those comments started getting attention, McCain said he doesn't agree with all of Hagee's views, but that wouldn't prevent from accepting his support.

Just last week, Hagee sought to put the matter to rest by issuing a letter expressing regret for "any comments that Catholics have found hurtful." McCain called the apology laudable.

But confronted with Hagee's sermons about Hitler and Israel, McCain apparently had enough. He called Hagee's comments "crazy and unacceptable" and repudiated the endorsement.

Hagee yesterday said he in no way condones the Holocaust or "that monster Adolf Hitler."

"I have devoted most of my adult life to ensuring that there will never be a second Holocaust," said Hagee, who did not take questions from reporters.

Hagee left it to Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg of Congregation Rodfei Shalom, a modern Orthodox synagogue in San Antonio, to provide an explanation of his offending comments.

Standing with Hagee at the news conference, Scheinberg called it "ironic and absurd" that Hagee's words were twisted and labeled anti-Semitic when Hagee was lecturing on one Jewish perspective of the Holocaust.

"Pastor interpreted a Biblical verse in a way not very different from several legitimate Jewish authorities," Scheinberg said. "Viewing Hitler as acting completely outside of God's plan is to suggest that God was powerless to stop the Holocaust, a position quite unacceptable to any religious Jew or Christian."

Scheinberg called Hagee a courageous Christian and a man guided by "an unparalleled moral compass."

McCain on Thursday also rejected the endorsement of Ohio megachurch pastor Rod Parsley, who has sharply criticized Islam and called the religion inherently violent.