Obama expresses outrage at former pastor’s remarks

The presidential candidate is seeking to tamp down the growing fury over Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his incendiary remarks that threaten to undermine his campaign.

“I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle that we saw on Monday,” Obama told reporters at a news conference.

After weeks of staying out of the public eye while critics lambasted his sermons, Wright made three public appearances in four days to defend himself. The former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago has been combative, providing colorful commentary and feeding the story Obama had hoped was dying down.

Obama told reporters on Tuesday that Wright’s comments do not accurately portray the perspective of the black church.

“The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago,” Obama said of the man who married him.

Wright criticised the US Government as imperialist and stood by his suggestion that the United States invented the HIV virus as a means of genocide against minorities. “Based on this Tuskegee experiment and based on what has happened to Africans in this country, I believe our government is capable of doing anything,” he said.

In a highly publicised speech last month, Obama sharply condemned Wright’s remarks. But he did not leave the church or repudiate the minister himself, who he said was like a family member.

On Tuesday, Obama sought to distance himself further from Wright. “I gave him the benefit of the doubt in my speech in Philadelphia explaining that he’s done enormous good. ... But when he states and then amplifies such ridiculous propositions as the US government somehow being involved in AIDS. ... There are no excuses. They offended me. They rightly offend all Americans and they should be denounced.”

Wright recently retired from the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. He became an issue in Obama’s presidential bid when videos circulated of Wright condemning the US government for allegedly racist...