Jul 9, 2008 7:18 pm US/Eastern
Jesse Jackson Caught Bad-Mouthing Obama
Reverend Apologizes For Remarks Caught On Microphone During Fox Interview
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
The Rev. Jesse Jackson was caught on a live microphone disparaging Barack Obama's relationship with African American church-goers.
Jackson, during a break in a Fox News interview, made a very crude statement regarding Obama's relationship with African Americans after the presidential candidate made several speeches on morality at black churches.
Obama recently lectured that black males are ''acting like boys''
''There's a reason why our families are in disrepair," Obama said in a Father's Day speech at Apostolic Church of God on Chicago's South Side. "And some of it has to do with a tragic history, but we can't keep on using that as an excuse. Too many fathers are AWOL, missing from too many lives and too many homes. They've abandoned their responsibilities. They're acting like boys instead of men."
Rev. Jackson today apologized for the remarks.
"For any harm or hurt that this hot mic private conversation may have caused, I apologize," Jackson said in a statement. "My support for Senator Obama's campaign is wide, deep and unequivocal. I cherish this redemptive and historical moment.
"My appeal was for the moral content of his message to not only deal with the personal and moral responsibility of black males, but to deal with the collective moral responsibility of government and the public policy which would be a corrective action for the lack of good choices that often led to their irresponsibility.''
Obama decided to leave his longtime church, Trinity United Church of Christ, after controversial remarks by former pastor Jeremiah Wright and Father Michael Pfleger.
In a sermon days after the Sept. 11 attacks, Wright said "America's chickens are coming home to roost" after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Japan and "supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans."
Pfleger, mocked Hillary Clinton from the Trinity pulpit, saying that Clinton thought she was entitled to the nomination but that "a black man'' was ''stealing my show.''
Pfleger, who is pastor at St. Sabina Catholic church on the South Side, was a guest preacher at Trinity when he made those remarks.
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