Obama: I Am ‘Outraged’ and ‘Angered’ By Wright’s Comments
Barack Obama campaigns Tuesday in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he firmly rejected Rev. Jeremiah Wright's statements to The National Press Club the day before. (AP Photo)
Barack Obama, declaring “that’s enough,” denounced Tuesday as “appalling” and “ridiculous” comments made in the last few days by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.
In a press conference in North Carolina, the Illinois senator used his strongest language to date to condemn Wright’s controversial sermons, which have remained a burden to his campaign since they became national news more than a month ago. Wright spoke Monday at The National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
“I am outraged by the comments that were made, and saddened over the spectacle that we saw yesterday,” Obama said.
“The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago. His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe they ended up giving comfort to those who prey on hate,” he said.
Click here to read the transcript of Obama’s remarks on Wright Tuesday.
Wright capped off a weekend-long set of public appearances at the Press Club, returning to the spotlight and casting an unwanted shadow over Obama’s campaign. Wright used the appearance to taunt reporters, criticize his country’s foreign policy and claim the furor surrounding his sermons was an attack on the black church. He also suggested that Obama only distanced himself from Wright out of political posturing.
Obama said he was particularly “angered” by that suggestion.
“If Reverend Wright thinks that that’s political posturing, as he put it, then he doesn’t know me very well — based on his remarks yesterday I may not know him as well as I thought either,” Obama said.
Shortly after the Wright controversy broke, Obama condemned his pastor’s sermons but still kept him at an arm’s length, saying Wright was “like family” and he could no more “disown” him than his own grandmother. Wright officiated at his wedding, and one of his sermons was the inspiration for the title of his book “The Audacity of Hope.”
But Tuesday, as he was still struggling to shake Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, Obama put as much distance as possible between him and his former pastor.
He disputed characterizations of Wright as his mentor, saying: “He was never my spiritual adviser, he was never my spiritual mentor — he was my pastor.”
He said he is still a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago but noted the controversy “obviously has put strains on that relationship.”
While still praising the church, Obama presented a rebuttal to Wright’s most controversial statements, arguing some of the key points that have made Wright a target of such scrutiny.
“All it was was a bunch of rants that aren’t grounded in truth,” Obama said of Wright’s Press Club performance . “And I can’t construct something positive out of that.”
Wright repeated his argument Monday that the United States brought terrorism upon itself by committing like acts overseas, and he did not back down from a claim that the U.S. government was responsible for afflicting the black community with HIV.
“But when he states and then amplifies such ridiculous propositions such as the U.S. government somehow being involved in AIDS; when he suggests that Minister (Louis) Farrakhan somehow represents one of the greatest voices of the 20th and 21st century; when he equates the U.S. wartime efforts with terrorism, then there are no excuses,” Obama said Tuesday. “They offend me, they rightly offend all Americans and they should be denounced, and that’s what I am doing very clearly and unequivocally here today.”
Obama also disputed Wright’s argument that he is weathering an attack on the black church.
“I did not view the initial round of sound bites that triggered this controversy as an attack on the black church. I viewed it as a simplification of who he was, a caricature of who he was. And more than anything, something that piqued a lot of political interest. I didn’t see it as an attack on the black church,” he said. “The sad thing is that although the sound bites as I’ve stated I think created a caricature of him … Yesterday I think he caricatured himself, and that was as I said, that made me angry but also made me sad.”
With two high-stakes primaries approaching May 6 in Indiana and North Carolina, Obama also stressed that Wright has no link whatsoever to his campaign. Obama is seeking to rebound from a nearly 10-point loss to Clinton in the Pennsylvania primary a week ago.
“Moving forward, Reverend Wright does not speak for me, he does not speak for my campaign,” he said, adding “I cannot prevent him from continuing to make these outrageous remarks.”
He continued, “I want to use this press conference to make people absolutely clear that obviously whatever relationship I had with Reverend Wright has changed as a consequence of this. I don’t think that he showed much concern for me.”
“What Reverend Wright said yesterday directly contradicts everything that I have done during my life,” he said.
Democratic strategist Steve Murphy told FOX News that Obama’s statements Tuesday should play a positive effect on his campaign.
“People are going to say that Barack Obama should have done this a long time ago, but what’s important in a political campaign is that you have done the right thing, and I think most Americans would agree that Barack Obama now has done that,” he said.
Hopefully, the media realizes that the biggest failure in this Rev. Wright situation has been the MEDIA. There is no reason why the so called PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS should have wasted so much time on this matter.
What has been accomplished?
Rev. Wright’s future has been made brighter. I hardly think Rev Wright will be AFFECTED BY THE ECONOMY as much as most Americans, considering he’ll probably get MANY BOOKS AND SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS from all of this controversy.
Rev Wright is an instigator of hate and prejudice from the pulpit.
Obama has proven that he has the ability to handle pressure. He has proven to be a good leader. Previously he condemned Wright’s words without condemning the man. Yet Wright chose to attack Obama. Today Obama defended himself today very eloquently and seems to have severed all ties with Wright. Obama can surmount this and will get through it.
I could comment on a multiple issues from this article, but the one that bothers me the most is the mention of the black church. How is it that we are to blend as a country and black segregation is allowed. I can’t even imagine if we had churchs in this country that we called the white church.
Obama is sooooo unreal that he was not outraged by “God Dam America” then, but soooooooo outraged not. He is just another politician and can’t even admitted it. Now I know what he really meant about “bitter.”
It doesn’t matter if Obama tries to act angry and distance himself from another black racist. The fact is that Obama spend 20 years attending this church and endorsing all of Wrights racism. He called Wright his “spiritual mentor”. Too late now; birds of a feather flock together.
Obama days are over now. He is a liar. for 20 yeras he has been a member of the same church,what now? Hillary 20008.
Obama Hussain doesn’t have to say God………… America his actions say it for him he won’t put his hand over his heart when the anthiem is played and he won’t wear a flag pin what is going to do when he stands in front of a group of military soldiers refuse to salute them as well
what a disgrace he is to America and more of a disgrace if he was president which has nothing to do with rev wright.
Can anyone realistically believe that one can go to a church for 20 yrs and not believe the message being preached. He is more than just a pastor to Obama he is a very close “family Member” Wright was over to His house on many occassion and if anyone believes that they didn’t talk about any of this black theology then that person has no understanding of friendships and mentors
I wonder how much Karl Rove paid the dear Reverent?