Clinton Says Obama Made the Right Move By Condemning Pastor, in ‘Factor’ Sit-Down
Hillary Clinton claps at a campaign stop in Portage, Ind., where she spoke briefly about her interview on "The O'Reilly Factor" Wednesday. (AP Photo)
Hillary Clinton, in her first appearance on FOX News’ “The O’Reilly Factor,” said Barack Obama made the right move by condemning Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. but that she was still offended by the pastor’s statements.
In the first part of a two-part interview — the second will air at 8 p.m. ET Thursday on FOX News — Clinton also defended her stances on health care and oil companies and sought to burnish her image as a “fighter” candidate.
Asked about Wright, Clinton said it’s up to voters to decide whether the mounting controversy over Obama’s retired pastor should impact the presidential race.
“(Obama) spoke out forcefully yesterday,” she told Bill O’Reilly in the appearance taped Wednesday in South Bend, Ind. “He made his views clear, finally, that he disagreed, and I think that’s what he had to do.”
Obama went on the offensive Tuesday, saying he was “outraged” and “angered” by Wright’s statements the day before in Washington, D.C.
Clinton matched that outrage and repeated that she would not have stayed in the church if Wright were her pastor.
“Well, I take offense. I think it’s offensive and outrageous. I’m going to express my opinion, others can express theirs. It is part of just, you know, an atmosphere we’re in today,” she told O’Reilly.
Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain told FOX News on Thursday that he doesn’t think Obama shares Wright’s views, which he described as “really, incredibly outrageous,” but he said he doesn’t feel sorry about Obama’s plight.
“I think we all face challenges when we are in political campaigns. Running for president is bean bag … I think he has to have a discussion with the American people, and he said that it’s a valid political issue so I am sure that he will do that,” he said.
McCain stepped back from an earlier effort to stop the North Carolina Republican Party from using the issue in ads for statewide campaigns.
“I wish they wouldn’t but I am not going to referee, I am just going to run my own campaign,” he said.
Wright capped off his recent round of public appearances with a stop Monday at the National Press Club. There, Wright taunted reporters and declined to retract his statement that the government is responsible for afflicting minorities with HIV.
“I sure don’t believe the United States government was behind AIDS,” Clinton said in the Wednesday interview. “This is part of the mosaic and diversity of America. I happen to think it is just totally off base … but what people are talking to me about is not that.”
Clinton also defended her support of a summer gas tax holiday, which Obama has decried as a campaign “gimmick.”
“I’m trying to lay the groundwork so that when I’m president we can get in there and say this has been going on way too long,” Clinton said of record oil profits. “I also want to take on OPEC. You know, OPEC is a cartel, it’s a monopoly.”
Under criticism from O’Reilly, Clinton said she supported universal health care because “it’s a moral issue,” and also said she would raise taxes on people making more than $250,000 a year.
“I’m going to take as much as you were paying in the ’90s,” she said.
Campaign aides said her appearance on the show was designed to reach out to working-class, independent white men who could decide the outcome of next week’s Indiana primary.
“This is a campaign of firsts. I’m sitting down today, another first,” Clinton told O’Reilly.
Clinton also spoke about the personality differences between her and Obama.
Asked if she felt Obama’s momentum stems in part from a perception that she is polarizing, she said: “Well, I’ve been around a long time. I bear a lot of the scars, ideological and political battles. I stand up for what I believe in.”
As for the criticism she’s taken over the years, she said, “This is the way our system is, they take shots at me … you’ve got to be tough (to take on drug and health care companies) and we’ve got to have a president who’s a fighter again.”
Meanwhile, Obama’s handling of the Wright flap hasn’t been all bad for the Illinois senator’s campaign. In a surprise move, the furor over the pastor helped him secure the backing of one Democratic congressman from Indiana.
Rep. Baron Hill said he is “pleased that Senator Obama clearly and unequivocally denounced Reverend Wright’s remarks. Hoosiers don’t feel that way about our country, I don’t feel that way about our country and Senator Obama made it abundantly clear that he doesn’t feel that way either.”
Hill said that the way Obama handled the Wright controversy actually persuaded him to endorse. Indiana’s primary is Tuesday.
Asked about Wright in Indianapolis on Wednesday, Obama said the situation was “difficult.”
“He’s somebody who married us, he baptized our children — he’s done good things in terms of building the church, but frankly what he said over the last few days and in some of the sermons that have been excerpted were unacceptable and … what we want to do now though is to make sure that this doesn’t continue to be a perpetual distraction.”
Click here to see a clip from O’Reilly’s interview with Clinton.
The second part of the Clinton interview with Bill O’Reilly airs Thursday on the FOX News Channel at 8 p.m. ET.
FOX News’ Chad Pergram, Aaron Bruns and Bonney Kapp and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Good afternoon….answer to why Nancy and that group have not fulfilled promises? The answer: They are busy using their valuable time when they are supposed to be doing the business of government, admonishing Rush. Apparently they have all the time in the world to listen to the radio???
Interesting to watch the Hillary when she’s afraid to outright lie on the air. O’Reilly sure held back and was too much the gentleman to suit me. He could have nailed her a few times and instead just backed off.
Hillary you make me proud!! That was your best interview ever!!
MC they do me the same way especially when I am saying something that goes against the biases they represent
the Church i went to my whole life never mixed politics and religion, never spoke ill of another race or religion, thank you Rev.Forester (my pastor) for teaching me about GOD.
I enjoyed watching Bill O’Reilly’s interview with our prevaricating former first lady last night. She was actually relaxed and came across less than phony, for a change. Americans would do very well to actually listen to what she is saying though. She did not shrink away from her socialist position of redistribution of wealth. In fact, she was pretty much unapologetic about it. I am not a wealthy person. Never have been, probably never will be. In fact, my husband just lost his job for the 3rd time in 3 years (we’re in Michigan, thank you Jennifer…) Anyway…I do NOT expect my government to take care of us by raising taxes on the ‘rich’, who already pay the lion’s share of the burden. The top 5% of U.S. wage earners already pay over 50% (can’t remember exact figure) to the Treasury! If you raise taxes on them, they will merely make the cuts in workforce to protect their profits. On the other hand, we have ample evidence that tax CUTS stimulate the economy, and thus INCREASE revenue to the Treasury (see JFK, Reagan, and Bush ‘02). The problem lies in congress not being fiscally responsible in their spending. We should not be surprised then, if we go ahead and elect Hillary or Obama, and our looming recession turns into another DEpression.
In all fairness, I have heard comments concerning various issues from the pulpit that I did not agree with or was even offended by. If it happened once, I talked to the pastor about it. If it happened twice, I talked to the church leaders. If it happened the third time, I left the church.
To expect the American people to honestly believe that a church member could sit in a church, listen to the message, become close friends with the pastor, be married by the pastor, have your children baptized by the pastor, and only now understand the hate, racism, and treason that was being spewed out by that same pastor is beyond belief.
And, we are supposed to believe that Obama was in this state of gullible and faultless incomprehension for over twenty years?
Sorry, suggesting that one is “outraged” and “appalled” (showing little or no emotion) after of twenty years of implicit approval is pathetic.
The people who believe it are even more pathetic.
One of the best appearances Hillary Clinton has had. While the subjects were heavy, the tone was light and refreshing, and Oreilly had all he could handle.
Maybe the representative from New York, the resident of Georgetown, the girl from Scranton, the kid from Park Ridge, Illinois, the former resident of south Texas, the Connecticut hospital worker, the Boston volunteer, the Ivy league scholar, the night shift worker, the co-president, the gun slinging beer guzzler and pick up truck enthusiast should decry lieing as well. Just what does this multiple personalitied person find so bad about telling the TRUTH??? Liar, Liar, pants on fire.
Obama supporters blogging must be some juveniles - they seem to be so immature.