Before Wright Firestorm, Obama Called for Imus Firing
Barack Obama had been a presidential candidate for more than a year before he outright repudiated his long-time pastor for racially charged, anti-U.S. sermons. But when talk show host Don Imus was in hot water 11 months ago for racially insensitive comments, Obama was the first candidate to call for his firing.
When asked about the different responses to his pastor and to Imus, Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor questioned the premise of the comparison and defended Obama’s response in each case.
“He spoke out both times, so it’s entirely consistent,” he told FOXNews.com Tuesday.
Click here to see the original ABC News interview with Obama.
Click here to see Obama discuss the Imus fallout on MSNBC.
Obama — who in a major speech Tuesday decried controversial remarks by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. dating back to 2001 — called for Imus to be fired just one week after Imus made the remarks in April 2007, two months after Obama had announced his candidacy.
“There’s nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group. And I would hope that NBC ends up having that same attitude,” Obama told ABC News in an April 11 interview.
Imus ignited public outcry for calling members of the women’s basketball team at Rutgers University “nappy-headed hos” on his popular morning talk show.
The controversy dogged Imus, even after he issued an apology to the team and met with the players personally seeking forgiveness.
The public atonement wasn’t enough to save his job. He was fired by CBS Radio and by MSNBC, which produced the TV simulcast, but since then he has returned to radio with a show on WABC-AM in New York that started in December.
Obama said in the 2007 ABC interview he would never appear again on Imus’ show.
“He didn’t just cross the line,” Obama said. “He fed into some of the worst stereotypes that my two young daughters are having to deal with today in America.”
In the case of Wright, Obama denies ever personally hearing his pastor give sermons that blamed the U.S. government for HIV and cast the country as institutionally racist. But Obama has had a 20-year relationship with Wright, and on Tuesday he said he knew Wright had made controversial remarks.
When some of Wright’s remarks were publicized last year, Obama rescinded an invitation for Wright to speak at his Feb. 10, 2007, presidential announcement.
Obama didn’t outright condemn Wright’s views until last Friday, but Vietor said Obama had started putting the issue to rest long before now.
“He denounced specific comments months ago and he gave a thoughtful speech today,” Vietor said Tuesday.
The white racism in this country has been over looked by all the cry babies who just won’t give the slave trade a rest NONE of us today are responsible……….maybe they should start thanking their ancestors for giving them the opportunity to be here and not in Africa today…….
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Hey Obama,
You are really smart to think that the American people are just that stupid !
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That is what we call double standard. If it’s the black that are descriminated it seems like murder to them but if it’s the different race they have all the excuses.
One of the biggest lies I have heard Obama and his cohorts tell is that all or most black churches spew late messages from their pulpit. Obama has been in one black church for 20 years, I was raised in, joined several, and visited many black churches over my 60+ years, and I can’t recall ever hearing that kind of hatred sermonized. In fact, am a black person who was born and raised in the segregated south (Alabama), and what we needed and got from our churches during the distressful 60’s were sermons of love and forgiveness. You see we needed to heal and we would not have healed from the hate, dogs set loose on us, fire hoses throwing us against brick walls, and bombings of our churches and people if ministers preached hate and not the love exemplified by Jesus Christ.
I have been reading the comments of most everybody here, and I am only left with a sinking feeling that now we have taken this wonderful opportunity to make some real changes in this country, and turned it over to the White, Black, and any other color of AMERICA RACIST that there is, to take any forward momentum and stick it right up the ole hiney hole, so that these
hate mongering, self absorbed people can stick their chests out and say, SEE I TOLD YOU SO!
MY HATE GROUP IS RIGHT, I KNEW THAT ALL BLACKS ARE STUPID, WHITEY IS STILL TRYING TO KEEP US DOWN, and all the other IGNORANT old worn and played out statements that have been made for centuries, and the only thing that they have accomplished is to keep this country down to the level that they feel it should be, because they are afraid they will get a dime taken out of their pocket, a sandwich taken away from them, Their spotlight turned off their cause, somebody may prove their cause wrong, and thus insinuate that their ancestors were ingnorant, because that is who taught them this crap. IT IS JUST Disgusting.
US Americans, Black, White, Hispanic, and Asian, are not each others REAL enemies,
RADICAL MUSLIMS (Not normal Muslims), RADICAL Religious groups period, are our enemy, and they are just loving the show you are putting on. They will sit back and wait until we
RACE HATE ourselves to death and then come in and start picking us apart.
Then all the races in the US will want each other watching each others backs, but it will be
TOO LATE!!!!
How does he ( Obama ) thank Imus is racist and not Rev. Wright. Imus made one racial statement and Rev. Wright has made them during his sermons for past twenty years.
Barak Obama, Jesse Jackson. Same, Same
This is THE most hypocritical position that I can imagine. I am white. I was appalled at Imus remarks & glad that he was asked to resign. His remarks were demeaning to both blacks & women.
I was also appalled & shocked to hear Rev (although it pains me to use that title) Wright shout repeatedly GOD DAMN AMERICA. There is no excuse for one of our elected leaders being part of that “church”. Then on top of that Obama’s early denials are flat out lies.
Why Obama finds it acceptable to associate with this hate-mongering radical (whites, women, America) and yet call for Imus’ firing is totally mind boggling.
Obama be damned. Anyone for Pres other than Obama. Go back to your radical Chicago roots & bask in the hate mongering discourse of your “church” and other associates.
In response to the Comment by CJ
I am say Wright is a racists, not his church or its members because I have not seen anything about them outside of what this one pastor has said, for not only what his sermon say but all those he’s chosen to put up on a pedestal for what he considers a kind hearted person to be like and also the types of groups hes chosen to be involved with, not to mention his list of black values. I understand he is from a generation that was not treated the way they should have been but he’s teaching a new generation to treat whites with distrust and distane instead of trying to fix the problems he is trying to make them worse. By the way I over turn most of CJ’s guilty verdicts cause he didn’t review the all evidence of Wrights racism and anti-US activities. The Jury is still out on the church until more evidence becomes availble
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March 19th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
And I find you all guilty of ignorance by automatically assumming Trinity and it’s former pastor Wright as fundamentally racist. I have heard my pastor say a few choice things about whites..some pastors say it louder than others…but he is far from a racist. All of you have no idea what you are saying unless you have experienced it yourself. Talk to blacks about their church and the feelings of the older generation before you say any more uninformed and ignorant posts. It makes me angry to hear the self rightousness and smugg comments from people who have no idea what they are talking about. Especially couch conservatives here and fox who hide behind the veil of objectivity as an excuse for not being informed.
You can’t equate bigotry with Wright’s comments. Wright’s OUTBURST (not his ministry) have a BASE in his life experience of racism and prejudice. True bigotry and racism has NO BASE…..you can’t equate the two. He was still wrong for the OUTBURSTS, but he was sharing it with his congregational family. YOU WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND IF YOU DON”T TALK TO US BLACKS ABOUT THIS. Racism is NOT THE BASIS FOR TRINITY OR THE BLACK CHURCH.
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When Obama was first running and I heard him speak I couldn’t decide between him and Hillary. A lot of my friends were saying they didn’t trust him. Now I see why. His minister is a racist. He belongs to that church and attends the services. How can we not connect him to this minister? I know if my priest spoke like that the entire congragation would up and leave and never come back. and this minister is a dear family friend? I’m sure God is very pleased when he hears this man speak like this!
He will not wear a flag pin, does not cover his heart when the plede of allegiane is said, and his wife has made remarks of never before being proud of America?
God help us all if he gets in! Be VERY afraid!