Jackson apologizes for 'crude' comment about Obama
CHICAGO — Barack Obama found himself amid yet another firestorm ignited by a Chicago pastor as the Rev. Jesse Jackson apologized Wednesday for crude comments made about the Democratic presidential candidate's speeches at black churches.
Jackson said the ``hurtful and wrong'' comments made Sunday were part of a private conversation with a fellow guest on ``Fox & Friends'' during a break from taping. The guest asked him about speeches on morality that Obama has given at black churches.
The reverend told reporters at a Chicago news conference Wednesday evening that he had said Obama's speeches can come off as speaking down to black people and that there were other important issues to be addressed in the black community, such as unemployment, the mortgage crisis and the number of blacks in prison.
The remarks apparently include a reference to male genitalia.
Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page, who has been booked on the Fox program ``The O'Reilly Factor'' to respond to Jackson's comments, reported that Jackson recalled his remark as, ``The senator is cutting off his you-know-what with black people.''
Jackson, who declined to repeat the comments, told The Associated Press that he doesn't remember ``exactly'' what he said Sunday but that he was ``very sorry.''
``It was not a public speech or a declaration,'' Jackson said, adding the comments ``will not be helpful.''
``For any harm or hurt that this hot mic private conversation may have caused, I apologize,'' Jackson said earlier in a written statement. ``My support for Senator Obama's campaign is wide, deep and unequivocal.''
Jackson said he has called Obama's campaign to apologize.
``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...,'' Jackson's statement said of his comments.
``That was the context of my private conversation and it does not reflect any disparagement on my part ... or my pride in Senator Barack Obama,'' he said.
Jackson said he decided to apologize publicly after he heard from Fox that they would air the comments.
Obama ``of course accepts Reverend Jackson's apology,'' campaign spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement.
``As someone who grew up without a father in the home, Senator Obama has spoken and written for many years about the issue of parental responsibility ... He also discusses our responsibility as a society to provide jobs, justice, and opportunity for all. He will continue to speak out about our responsibilities to ourselves and each other,'' Burton said.
Though Jackson supports Obama, the two are not close.
Jackson's own son, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., released a written statement in which he described his father's recent comments as ``ugly rhetoric.''
``I'm deeply outraged and disappointed in Reverend Jackson's reckless statements about Senator Barack Obama,'' Jackson said. ``His divisive and demeaning comments about the presumptive Democratic nominee — and I believe the next president of the United States — contradict his inspiring and courageous career,'' the younger Jackson said.
The elder Jackson declined to respond to his son's statement.
Jackson is at least the third Chicago pastor to create problems for Obama on the campaign trail.
In March, a videotape of Obama's longtime former pastor the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. created a political firestorm in the primaries. On the tape, Wright accused the U.S. government of creating AIDS and is seen shouting ``God damn America'' during a sermon at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
Obama has since resigned from the South Side church.
In May, Roman Catholic priest the Rev. Michael Pfleger mocked Obama's then Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Clinton during a guest sermon at Trinity United. Pfleger, who is white, pretended he was Clinton crying over ``a black man stealing my show.''
The comments about Obama are not the first Jackson has had to explain after believing he was off the record.
In 1984, he called New York City ``Hymietown,'' referring to the city's large Jewish population. He later acknowledged it was the wrong to use the term, but said he did so in private to a reporter.
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Associated Press Ashley M. Heher in Chicago contributed to this report.