One day after Barack Obama’s former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright addressed the National Press Club [click to read], the Illinois Senator strongly denounced the appearance, calling it a “spectacle.”
At a speaking engagement in North Carolina —which holds its primary next week–, Obama issued his strongest denunciation to date.
“His comments were not only divisive … but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate,” he said, addressing a group of reporters.
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Obama also said his relationship with his pastor has been “changed” because of the incident.
Wright has been a campaign liability for Obama during the march to the Pennsylvania primary when a series of looped sound bites of old sermons by Wright surfaced. Among the inflammatory comments, which many have said were taken out of context, showed Wright exclaiming “God damn America!”
The meeting with reporters saw Obama draw a clear line in the sand between himself and Wright.
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“At a certain point if what somebody says contradicts what you believe so fundamentally and then he questions whether or not you believe it — in front of the National Press Club — then that’s enough,”Obama said, referring to Wright‘s suggestion that Obama‘s denouncement was what a politician had to say.
He also took aim at Wright’s praise of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and the notion that the United States military has been engaged in “terrorism.”
“All it was was [sic] a bunch of rants that aren’t grounded in truth and I can’t construct something positive out of that.”
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“Moving forward, Rev. Wright does not speak for me, he does not speak for our campaign. I cannot prevent him from making these outrageous remarks…When I say I find these comments appalling, I mean it.”
