UPDATE: Barack Obama: “I seek daily to imitate his (Wright’s) faith.”
Jeremiah Wright says his words were twisted and taken out of context.
Wright says his words sounded just like hate speech but they really weren’t.
It just depends on if you consider screaming “God D*mn America” at the pulpit acceptable, or not.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright defended his racist, anti-American speech today in an interview with Bill Moyers.
The Caucus reported:
In his first wide-ranging interview since video clips of his inflammatory sermons were aired, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. defended himself over the controversy, saying that his words were twisted.
Mr. Wright, Senator Barack Obama’s former pastor, gave an interview to Bill Moyers on Wednesday, to air on PBS tomorrow.
“I felt it was unfair,” Mr. Wright said, according to excerpts of the interview released Thursday. “I felt it was unjust. I felt it was untrue. I felt for those who were doing that, were doing it for some very devious reasons.”
In Mr. Wright’s sermons, he suggested that Americans bore some responsibility for the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, saying “America’s chickens are coming home to roost.” He also blamed the government for the spread of AIDS among African-Americans, characterized the United States government as corrupt and referred to the “U.S. of K.K.K. A.”
He did not apologize or back away from his remarks in the interview, instead saying that people wanted to paint him as “some sort of fanatic.”
“It’s to paint me as something — ‘Something’s wrong with me. There’s nothing wrong with this country … for its policies. We’re perfect. Our hands are free. Our hands have no blood on them,’” he said. “That’s not a failure to communicate. The message that is being communicated by the sound bites is exactly what those pushing those sound bites want to communicate.”
When asked what the people who aired the clips “wanted to communicate,” Mr. Wright said, “I think they wanted to communicate that I am unpatriotic, that I am un-American, that I am filled with hate speech, that I have a cult at Trinity United Church of Christ. And by the way, guess who goes to his church, hint, hint, hint? That’s what they wanted to communicate.”
He says people are painting him as some sort of fanatic.
No way!
Keep talking, Reverend.
(Hat Tip Mike Moseley for Koterba Cartoon)
And, remember Jeremiah Wright’s biggest hits were made available on DVD!
Hat Tip Larwyn
Wright did not say if his racist, anti-Semitic, anti-American words in the church newsletters were taken out of context, too, or not.
UPDATE: HotAir provides context behind the Rev. Wright comments.
