WASHINGTON – Barack Obama angrily denounced his former pastor yesterday for “divisive and destructive” remarks on race, seeking to contain a controversy that threatens to bury his presidential campaign.
Obama accused Wright of a “show of disrespect to me” after Wright challenged the candidate’s sincerity in a bombastic press conference on Monday.
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In the press conference, Wright also criticized the US government for supposedly bringing 9/11 upon itself and stood by his earlier claim that the United States invented the AIDS virus as a means of genocide against minorities.
“I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened over the spectacle that we saw yesterday,” Obama said yesterday.
“I have been a member of Trinity United Church of Christ since 1992, and have known Rev. Wright for 20 years,” 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 that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate.
“They certainly don’t portray accurately my values and beliefs. And if Rev. Wright thinks that that’s political posturing, as he put it, then he doesn’t know me very well.”
Obama pulled no punches against the man who has been his pastor, married him to his wife and baptized his two daughters.
“When he states and then amplifies such ridiculous propositions as the US 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 United States wartime efforts with terrorism, then there are no excuses,” Obama said.
“What I think particularly angered me was his suggestion somehow that my previous denunciation of his remarks were somehow political posturing. Anybody who knows me . . . knows that I am about trying to bridge gaps and that I see the commonality in all people.”
On Monday, Wright had said, “If Senator Obama did not say what he said, he would never get elected.”
Obama’s fierce condemnation of Wright is a turnaround from just a month ago, when Obama had said, “I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community.”
Yesterday, Obama described Wright’s antics as an unwanted distraction to the presidential campaign. “The fact that Rev. Wright would think that somehow it was appropriate to command the stage for three or four consecutive days in the midst of this major debate is something that not only makes me angry but also saddens me,” he said.
Obama said he may call Wright at some time in the future, but there has been “great damage” to their relationship.
Obama also tried to recast and downplay his past relationship with Wright, saying, “Now, to some degree, you know, I know that one thing that he said was true was that he was never my ‘spiritual adviser.’ ”
Meanwhile, the National Press Club responded to a report suggesting that club member Barbara Reynolds, a Clinton supporter, arranged the Wright event.
“Rev. Wright is newsworthy, period,” said club president Sylvia Smith.
With Post Wire Services