Once again a Clinton supporter and surrogate makes a racially insensitive remark. This has become standard operating procedure for the Clinton mafia. This is a CNN 360 show transcript:
BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. ED RENDELL, (D) PA: It wasn't intended to be racial. Anybody who knows my record as governor knows I've been probably the most inclusive governor we've ever had.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell explaining some of the controversial remarks he made about Barack Obama. Critics have since been calling his words everything from politically motivated to racist, some people have said. The governor isn't quite backing down.
360's Randi Kaye met with him in Philadelphia.
Tonight she's up close with Governor Ed Rendell.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's blunt, brutally honest.
RENDELL: People know I don't B.S. them.
KAYE: And hardly bashful regarding his recent comments about Barack Obama.
RENDELL: The next president of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
KAYE: In a meeting with the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's" editorial board last month, Pennsylvania's Governor Ed Rendell, who has endorsed Hillary Clinton said, "You've got conservative whites here, and I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate." Yes, he went there.
RENDELL: I wasn't trying to influence the campaign, I was in a room with six guys -- I don't think it even had any windows and they asked me to handicap the race.
KAYE (on camera): The governor's remarks sent a chill through Pennsylvania's African-American community. Here in Philadelphia, the head of the NAACP called it callous and insensitive. Others have suggested it was politically motivated, even racist.
RENDELL: It wasn't intended to be racial.
KAYE: You don't regret your comments at all about Barack Obama and white voters.
RENDELL: Do I think there was anything wrong with it? Absolutely not. I told the truth, and we've got to be able to speak the truth about race without someone pointing their finger and saying, you're racist.
KAYE: Rendell calls Obama a formidable candidate who has done a great job of putting the race issue behind him. He blames the media for, his words here, "obsessing about this stuff."
Just five days after the "Post Gazette" published Rendell's comments, it printed a follow up article that seems to defend Rendell.
"Mr. Rendell didn't dump or strategically plant his opinion about race in our paper on behalf of the Clinton campaign. He appeared passive but not indifferent to or malicious about our state's backwardness."
Barack Obama agreed with the governor saying, "I think there will be people who don't vote for me because of race. There will be people who don't vote for me because I got big ears." But Obama didn't let Rendell off the hook. He also said, "Governor Rendell is a savvy politician, and I think he wants to project strength for Senator Clinton."
This is not the first time Governor Rendell injected race into a race. When he ran for governor in 2006, his opponent was former TV host Lynn Swann, an African-American. After his victory, Rendell said he believed the margin would have been closer, had Swann been white. Swann told us he thought Rendell's most recent comments about Obama were a subtle form of racism. If Clinton doesn't win the nomination, Rendell says he will support Obama. He's given him his word.
1 comment:
rendell is a known racist. he was the DA of philly back in the 80s and was involved in the bombing of the MOVE house in west philly. that bombing killed 11 people, including kids. he has done nothing to rectify his part of the problem. i don't trust him AT ALL. so if hillary is accepting his support just so she can win pennsylvania... then i cannot support her. it's impossible.
bad move, hillary. there are plenty of black folks out here who will never forget what happened to MOVE! we'll never forget the name rendell. it's a bad move to have that name connected with your own.
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