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Rev. Jesse Jackson Apologizes For Obama Remark

Reverend Caught On Microphone During Fox Interview Saying Senator 'Talking Down To Blacks, Wants To 'Cut His N--s'

CHICAGO (CBS) ― The Rev. Jesse Jackson is apologizing for disparaging remarks he made about Barack Obama's relationship with African American church-goers, caught on camera during a break in a Fox News interview.

Jackson made a very crude statement regarding Obama's relationship with African Americans after the presidential candidate made several speeches on morality at black churches.

In a video aired Wednesday night on the Fox program "The O'Reilly Factor," Jackson leans over and whispers to fellow panelist Dr. Reed V. Tuckson, executive vice president and chief of medical affairs for UnitedHealth Group, "See, Barack been, um, talking down to black people on this faith based ... I want cut his n--s off ... Barack ... he's talking down to black people." Jackson appeared to make a stabbing or cutting motion with his hand as he made the remarks.

The reverend moved quickly to apologize to Obama and explain himself to reporters.

"Well, they were hurtful and wrong, that's the whole point," Jackson said of his words. "And when you make mistakes you should not equivocate. You should be quick to go into offensive and not try to be evasive. And if it was said to him personally or in some public forum it would be even more hurtful. In this case, my error was responding to a question before a live mic. And so when he does hear them they will not be helpful; they will be hurtful. We have a relationship that can survive this."

Rev. Jackson continued his round of national public apologies on the CBS Early Show Thursday morning: "I am such a fervent supporter of the campaign, the message and the messenger, as a matter of fact."

Jackson had been critical of comments Obama made in black churches after 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."

While, Rev. Jackson was sorry for his choice of words, he stood by his assertion that Obama needs to speak more about the role of society in helping African Americans.

"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.''

The reverend said Wednesday 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.

"And then I said something I thought regretfully crude but it was very private and very much a sound bite and a live mic," Jackson told CNN.

Obama's campaign has largely downplayed the incident. The candidate "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. 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 statement goes on to say: "Revered Jackson is my dad and I'll always love him. He should know how hard that I've worked for the last year and a half as a national co-chair of Barack Obama's presidential campaign. So, I thoroughly reject and repudiate his ugly rhetoric. He should keep hope alive and any personal attacks and insults to himself."

Asked about those comments at Wednesday afternoon's press conference, the Rev. Jackson said it was best that he not respond.

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.

Jackson is at least the third Chicago pastor to create problems for Obama on the campaign trail.

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.

CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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