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Fox News captured the Reverend Jesse Jackson criticizing presidential candidate Barack Obama, saying, "See, Barack's been talking down to black people ... I want to cut his nuts off." Jackson was appearing on this past Sunday's Fox & Friends and was speaking to UnitedHealth Group's Reid Tuckson, a fellow guest--but didn't realize his mic was still on. Tonight, Bill O'Reilly aired the clip, and added that Fox News has "more damaging" audio of Jackson, but it's classy like that.
Jackson apologized, "I said something I felt regret for -- it was crude...For any harm or hurt that this hot mic conversation may have caused, I apologize." After saying Obama had his support, Jackson also tried to give some explanation; via CNN:
"I was in a conversation with a fellow guest on Sunday. He asked about Barack's speeches lately at the black churches. I said he comes down as speaking down to black people," Jackson said.In a recent Father's Day speech at a black church, Obama took absent black fathers to task, saying, "We need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child -- it's the courage to raise one."
While Jackson didn't cite any particular comment, he told CNN that Obama's message to black voters must be broader and serve as more than a "moral challenge."
The black community is faced with high levels of unemployment, home foreclosures and violence, "so we have some real serious issues -- not just moral issues," he said.
To make things a little more complicated, Jackson's son is co-chair of Obama's campaign. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. issued a statement saying:
"I'm deeply outraged and disappointed in Rev. Jackson's reckless statements about Sen. 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...Obama's campaign said, "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, including the importance of fathers participating in their children’s lives. 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, and he of course accepts Reverend Jackson’s apology.”The remarks like those uttered on Fox by Reverend Jackson do not advance the campaign’s cause of building a more perfect union.
“Reverend 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.”
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Why don't these people know that anything ANYTHING said in a television studio is liable to be recorded....
egocentric I guess....
speaking of egos... 1st to post.
Not his Trucknutz!
and guess what no left leaning person will go on any FOX show for this election cycle. Think they would do the same if it was about McCain... as if that needs an answer.
It really sucks that news as I knew it growing up is SO dead. and TV is the worst.
Makes the Gothamist look like a real news venue.
i feel sad now
We need some Rainbow Coalition LolFailcats and we need it stat!
Seems like the only people against Obama are black people (see, e.g., Wright and Jesse) and very, very, very White people (see, e.g. the bible belt).
Obama should do a Tiger Woods and renounce his blackness. Or marry a hot blond.
I'm beginning to believe there's a generation gap with older politicians. They don't seem to be media savvy today, but they were a generation ago. How else can anyone explain Hillary's "Bosnian sniper fire" lies although she landed at the airport with CNN onboard? Or Donald Rumsfeld's claim "we know where the weapons of mass destruction are" on a live talk show and then deny he said when it was clear there weren't any such weapons? Only a few are losing it with age, but the rest seem to think they can control the media with just their words.
Gotta say, this is kind of funny. I'm not a huge Jesse Jackson fan, but I don't think his comments were all that damaging. The part about cutting his nuts off. Classic.
Oh, and I am an Obama fan.
Best of luck to Rev. Jackson in trying to find Sen. "FISA" Obama's nuts.
who says that?! " I want to cut his nuts off". i could see "smack up side the head" but " I want to cut his nuts off"? christ!
One of the most illuminating comments I have heard came from an interview on Bill Moyer's Journal with two black men about Obama's run. The younger of the two said approximately: "I don't think black people realize that voting for Obama is voting for the end of race as we know it." Jackson had his chance, so did Sharpton. They both have a perverse interest in keeping the country divided along racial lines. There are problems with how people of different ethnicities treat one another, but it is time to try a different, more self conscious approach. We are all, regardless of ethnicity, flawed. And we need to start talking about that.
Jackson is increasingly proving the irrelevency of the "civil rights generation." It pains me to say this, but like Moses an the promised land, these guys cannot fit into a post-racial world. I am cautiously optimistic about the Obama Phenomenon: I want to move beyond tribal/racial/demographic alliances.
gotta love conservative whitewashed black politicians.
um,
Is it just me or is it possible that Jesse made these comments knowing full well fox might record them?
It helps Obama by drawing the attention of some white voters, who might not otherwise vote for a black candidate, to his black church comments.
The fact that he made this mistake on fox, where it definitely would be broadcast, makes me suspect it even more.
that's just my two cents.
Obama talks down to pandas too.
"Why don't these people know that anything ANYTHING said in a television studio is liable to be recorded"
they do know, specifically media-reverend jesse jackson knew EXACTLY what he was doing. it was the only way jesse could say what he really feels & pander to jesse's supporters. in other words: he's hatin'
yo jesse, don't hate, congratulate.
also, you gotta love the way he got told by his own son:
"So, I thoroughly reject and repudiate his ugly rhetoric. He should keep hope alive and any personal attacks and insults to himself.”
damn!
I love the little shoulder jerk cutting gesture Jessie makes to punctuate his comment. Classic.
as joby and zodak said, he knew exactly what he was doing. He's done enough television to know when a mic is hot, to know when a camera is on, etc. The comments weren't really damaging, and as joby says, can actually be helpful.
Obama is the first Democratic [presumptive] nominee that my father has considered voting for since Humphrey, but always with the caveat that he worries about the racial baggage that would be sitting behind him on the podium come January 20, 2009. By this, he means Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, et al. Statements like Jackson's serve to alleviate that fear from a certain segment of voters' minds.
Get ready for McCain 08' folks. We're all going to be smacked with the fish of reality once again, standing with our nuts in our hand, wondering "What happened?"
Its all kinds of weird that Jesse would advocate the castration of a Black man. Too much baggage.
Thanks, Gothamist, for spelling "MIC" correctly --- pet peeve -- even the Post is spelling it mike. It's a microphone, not a mikerophone.
Hate is not going to get the demos the white house in november
The thing i don't understand is that does Jesse then think that video Games, not reading, ignoring your children, and kids thinking your going to be a rap star instead of going to school is good for the community?
"Or Donald Rumsfeld's claim "we know where the weapons of mass destruction are"
I know it's OT.. but this one is my favorite Rumsfeld quote by far:
"We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."
Dear Jesse Jackson,
Most people would like to cut your head off.
Hymietown strikes again! I know Reverend Jesse saw that SNL skit about him and Obama.
Seriously though, Obama is pushing the limit with his condescending lectures. I know he means well, but WTF? Cosby tried it, and they passed him off as craaazy.
See if McCain or Hillary can get away with addressing black audiences to turn of the TV, and stop eating Popeye's for breakfast.
And here I thought the article was going to be about some Irish comment.
My first thought also was that Jackson has done SO much TV in his life that he had to have known that his mic was on and that he was being recorded at the time. He HAD to.
Hot mic here, get it while it's hot!
I guess we now know what Jackson thinks of William Cosby, EdD.
Nothing to add here. Jesse is toast. Burnt toast.
Why do people think he has something to say? If FOX wanted him, isn't it just to damage the left? Is he that stupid?
Yes...
Well Obama may be dark skinned, but he isn't an Afro-American. If anybody would chech, he's one half white, 7/8 Arabic and 1/8 African. His birth certiface states he is Arab. Now, I don't know about you, but an Arab=American as President, not my cup of tea.
Thank you!!