A mere… thirty hours or so after video of Jeremiah Wright denouncing the “U.S. of KKK A” hit the morning shows, Obama issues a full-throated statement:
The pastor of my church, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who recently preached his last sermon and is in the process of retiring, has touched off a firestorm over the last few days. He’s drawn attention as the result of some inflammatory and appalling remarks he made about our country, our politics, and my political opponents.
Let me say at the outset that I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy. I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it’s on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue.
He chose to post that statement on… the Huffington Post. At 4:30 p.m. eastern on a Friday.
UPDATE: As noted, Obama says, “The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation.”
I suppose it’s possible that every time Obama has attended Wright’s sermons, and that every time they have conversed, he has seen a completely different side of Wright, a man who never shared his theory that the U.S. created the AIDS virus, that the 9/11 attacks were the chickens coming home to roost, the use of the N-word, etc…