« Hillary Campaign: Yes, We Did Raise $10 Million In One Day | Home | Gallup: Obama's Lead Shrinks Post-Pennsylvania -- But He's Still Ahead »
Wright Gives First Interview to Bill Moyers
Jeremiah Wright had some tough words for his media detractors in an interview with Bill Moyers -- his first since YouTubes of his sermons put him in the national spotlight -- and some backhanded remarks about his friend and parishioner Barack Obama, too.
From an advance transcript of the yet-to-be-broadcast interview:
Moyers: You performed his wedding ceremony. You baptized his two children. You were, for 20 years, his spiritual counsel. He has said that. And, yet, he, in that speech at Philadelphia, had to say some hard things about you. How did those words...how did it go down with you when you heard Barack Obama say those things?
Wright: It went down very simply. He's a politician, I'm a pastor. We speak to two different audiences. And he says what he has to say as a politician. I say what I have to say as a pastor. But they're two different worlds.I do what I do. He does what politicians do. So that what happened in Philadelphia where he had to respond to the sound bytes, he responded as a politician.
Wright also had this to say about the suggestion that he is the one who has miscommunicated his message:
When something is taken like a sound bite for a political purpose and put constantly over and over again, looped in the face of the public, that's not a failure to communicate. Those who are doing that are communicating exactly what they want to do, which is to paint me as some sort of fanatic or as the learned journalist from the New York Times called me, a "wackadoodle."
Advertisement
Eric, how in the hell did you get "some backhanded remarks about his friend and parishioner Barack Obama, too" from the quote below?
I don't read this as a backhanded remark at Senator Obama.
April 24, 2008 1:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Isn't "politician" a four-letter word?
April 24, 2008 1:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
How is the word 'politician' a four-letter word? It's what Obama is, it's what Clinton is, and it describes their profession.
April 24, 2008 1:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly right (no pun intended). But the only way Eric can say this was "backhanded" is by assuming the word "politician" is a dig.
As for the "meat" of this story - while I'm glad Wright is out there and I think talking to Bill Moyers is probably the best person to talk to (hey, maybe it'll make other people aware of him!), I also know what kind of hay is going to be made of this. Such as Eric's "backhanded" interpretation of the remarks, regardless of the context.
Funny, being that's the subject of the piece...
April 24, 2008 1:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Their profession is the law.
Constitutionally speaking, we are not supposed to be governed by people who are professional politicians, as in say a Politburo system, but by our fellow citizens. In a Republic there is not properly a profession called "politician" -- merely an activity.
April 24, 2008 3:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
I PROMISE I WON'T SAY ANYTHING STUPID
I'm not even going to mention the crap the U.S. Govt. is putting in school lunch milk that makes AA male's walk out on their children. So shut up Hannity.
Sincerely Hating AmeriKKKa
Rev Wright
April 24, 2008 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
WTF??????
April 24, 2008 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
All TPM has to do is place a little race bait near the sewers and all the Aryan Nation Sewer Rats coming rushing to the feast that has been set for them.
Watch Sewer Rat RenStimpy gorge himself.
April 24, 2008 2:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
DEAR liam
Are you staring at my pee pee?
You can expect a visit from your local chapter of the KKK you liddle poof.
Sincerely
Nathan Bedford Forest
April 24, 2008 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Such ignorance. Item 3 of the Black Value System is "Commitment to the Black Family."
April 24, 2008 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
flufferwink: Rev. Wright was asked about the hard things Sen. Obama said about Wright. Wright says that he said the hard things because he's a politician. Common interpretation would be that Obama didn't mean the hard things - he just said them because he had to as a politician.
Also factor in overwhelming public perceptions of "politician" and "pastor" - the former says what he needs to to get elected and the latter says (what he believes to be) spiritual truths.
Maybe "backhanded" isn't the PERFECT word. Maybe "somewhat damning" would have been better. (Especially because Obama has positioned himself as different from "politic(ian)s as usual.")
April 24, 2008 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hard things like, "I could no more disown the man than I could disown my own grandmother." Barack really tore his paster a new a-hole there, didn't he?
Given the context, I think that Obama has stood by Reverend Wright when he could have easily disowned him - was probably expected to disown him - would have been politically expedient to disown him. But he didn't. In my mine, that's not your typical politician.
April 24, 2008 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lest we forget.
April 24, 2008 3:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's possible Rev. Wright didn't mean the remarks equivocally, I'd have to hear the tone of voice, but they certainly can be read equivocally, and there's no doubt there's an opportunity the right could jump on, as "responded as a politician" could be translated into something that roughly interprets the words as meaning "responded as a phoney out for votes." Compare the difference: "he responded as a public figure." So no. I don't think this sounds very good, politician is for sure a term that tends to the pejorative and I don't exactly blame the old man. Obama couldn't defend him as forcefully as the old man might've liked without fanning the racist bigot flames, and I imagine he's still waiting to be forcefully defended, in this country that is in total denial about any of its sins. As Cohen pointed out in the NY Times recently, we have a holocaust museum in Atlanta but no equivalent museum when it comes the history of slavery and segregation that is our own national shame.
April 24, 2008 1:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Because Eric's in the tank for Hillary.
April 24, 2008 1:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
In 'bot speak: Anything remotely resembling the truth about The Dear Leader or one of his lunatic fringe cronies is de facto proof that the speaker is pro-Clinton.
April 24, 2008 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
The truth?!
Have you seen the interview? How do you know that this itty bitty excerpt that Eric has posted is The Truth?
Eric, how is this a different presentation of Rev. Wright than the spliced and diced version Hannity and Faux Noise have presented in the past? A few lines excerpted out of a whole interview and some glitzy interpretives added by Eric and we have the Full Wright?
Puhleeeeez!!!
April 24, 2008 2:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
All TPM has to do is place a little race bait near the sewers and all the Aryan Nation Sewer Rats coming rushing to the feast that has been set for them.
Watch Sewer Rat EastWest gorge himself.
April 24, 2008 3:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Any link to the full transcript? This should be quite interesting.
April 24, 2008 1:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nah, Eric only picked out the parts for us that might sound controversial. That's how it works with Rev. Wright - didn't you know?
April 24, 2008 1:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
I disagree. I think it will be zero percent interesting. Wright will probably say something that's open to interpretation -- look, he already has -- and Obama's enemies (including Hillary) will take it up as "proof" that Obama is a communist, or hates white people, or something absurd along those lines. This will prove only their own mental poverty and soulless contempt for the American people. But it will fill the news for three days and will linger in traces until November or, if Obama becomes president, until 2017. I'm already bored just thinking about it.
April 24, 2008 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Amen and good for you for telling it like it is. Keep speaking Truth to Power, Rev Wright - like you have your whole life.
April 24, 2008 1:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD !
I thought when I built my $1.8 million dollar mansion with church donations in this 98% "white rich folks" neighborhood we could hold that percentage until at least the shingles got nailed down but now this Vietnamese family moved in down the street and we're closing in on 97.78%! I'm getting a rotweiller!
Sincerely Mad at AmeriKKKa
Rev Wright
REMEMBER: Donate your spare "Change We Can Believe In" to ease the suffering of Harvard student loan deadbeats!
April 24, 2008 1:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
I seriously wonder what the point of logging in to make comments at TPM is when jerks like this guy can post whatever garbage they want all day.
April 24, 2008 3:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your ok with his racist remarks? How do you justify those statements in the context of him being a Pastor.
April 24, 2008 1:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wasn't he just acknowledging the particular pressure Obama is under?
I don't think there is a bit of animosity there. Rev Wright has said often enough that he loves Barack Obama and believes in him.
And I believe that.
April 24, 2008 1:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am going to protest this one, Greg.
I do not believe that was backhanded and I rather wish you'd retract that or make it clear that it's your opinion.
April 24, 2008 1:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Erik, I mean - sorry.
I am protesting this one, Erik, not Greg.
April 24, 2008 1:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Eric's a lot snarkier than Greg in his posts. It's clear from his posts that he has a certain bias towards Clinton.
April 24, 2008 1:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed.
April 24, 2008 1:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I do think that Greg has been beaten up unfairly for some of his blog posts. However, the main issue behind the criticism of Greg is that the writers here repeat right-wing talking points or talking points that aren't logical without a given sense of skepticism or investigation into their veracity. Repeating the talking points or accepting a media narrative without question brings these criticism forth from the commentators here.
April 24, 2008 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not bias, just echo-chamber mentality. Too much Politico.
April 24, 2008 1:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Politico politico politico politico True. But there is good reverb in here. OM!
April 24, 2008 1:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
♪Bomb, bomb, bomb♪
♪bomb, bomb Iran.♪
There is reverb!
April 24, 2008 1:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's a shame that the truth is so inconvient. You guys are twisting yourselves into knots trying to justify the unjustifiable, and to make yourselves believe that Obama lying for political reasons is somehow better than anybody else lying for political reasons.
Sad, really.
April 24, 2008 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wright should do Barack a favor and be quiet.
April 24, 2008 1:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why don't you do us a favor and shut up?
April 24, 2008 1:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have to say thats not very lawyerly talk young lady.
April 24, 2008 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Snot.
April 24, 2008 2:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I want to see the whole interview before I make up my mind, but I have to say, at this point: this may be the first time I'm agreeing with you on something primary-related, Louisville.
April 24, 2008 1:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
less is more.
April 24, 2008 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can someone interview Hagee?
April 24, 2008 1:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ruh Roh!
How did he get out of the broom closet with Sharpton and JJ Jr?
April 24, 2008 1:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's a man of god who says what he thinks. Obama can't control him or shut him up.
April 24, 2008 1:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Especially if Clinton and the GOP can continue to try to make him an issue, and make Obama guilty by association, eh Billy?
April 24, 2008 1:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
sorry bout the OT, but obama gets another super:
April 24, 2008 1:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's been posted here today before in the comments.
April 24, 2008 1:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've posted a link to this video before but this Catholic priest offers an excellent defense of his friend Rev. Wright from silly questions by an O'Reilly ambush reporter.
Reverend Wright seems to be a decent fellow and has done more for his community than most of his critics.
Good for Wright. Good for Obama. They've both made the best out of a terrible pack of scurrilous lies and innuendo.
April 24, 2008 1:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love that video -- thanks for posting it. As he says, one could make Jesus look like a whack job with selective editing and looping.
April 24, 2008 1:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jesus WAS a bit of a wack job, if he existed at all.
April 24, 2008 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
And, were he around today, republicans would have him executed or sent to Gitmo if they could. What flagpin would Jesus wear?
April 24, 2008 3:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
God, thank you so much for this link. I'm a totally lapsed Catholic but this guy reminds me that there was, and apparently still is, an activist politically engaged segment within the Catholic Church. It's the best defense of Wright I've seen. This guy would not let that Fox douchebag talk him down.
April 24, 2008 1:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Man I hate Fox news. Thank god I gave up on cable news (and Network news for that matter). Watching only the News Hour on PBS has done wonders for my intellect and my blood pressure.
April 24, 2008 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Those who are doing that are communicating exactly what they want to do
Pretty much nailed it.
I disagree with the criticism above. I think that the phrase "He says what he has to say as a politician" is going to be taken out of context by Obama opponents, and twisted into:
"Even Obama's pastor says Obama will way whatever he has to!!@#!!! Obama is a phony!!! Even his pastor thinks so!!!"
So I think it is a backhanded comment. And let's be real, people: politicians don't exactly have a good reputation. They're probably viewed as more trustworthy than lawyers, real estate agents, and mechanics by the general public, but not by much, I'd guess.
April 24, 2008 1:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think we'll need to wait for the broadcast to know whether that was backhanded or not. The words themselves are neutral. Wright is just describing reality when he says they're operating in two different worlds.
Of course, reality has a well-known pro-Obama bias. ;-)
April 24, 2008 1:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly. That's why it's silly to make assumptions about comments in a television broadcast that hasn't even been released yet. Shoddy journalism again, in interpreting context.
April 24, 2008 1:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree, but I still maintain that Erik is making an assumption here and I disagree with it totally.
I'm sure Wright has been hurt, but I'm also sure that he feels badly that Obama has been hurt by all of this.
And furthermore, given how outspoken and fearless Rev Wright is, if he had a beef with Obama he'd be upfront about it.
April 24, 2008 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
I actually think that, perhaps counterintuitively, the more Wright can be out talking to the press, the better. He was initially defined largely by forces with electoral and/or pecuniary interests in conjuring up a scary black enraged boogey man -- an ancient and powerful archetype in America -- with little pushback from an Obama campaign torn between correcting the record and not wanting to add oxygen to the story.
Wright isn't nearly as whacky as the caricature that has emerged when only a few soundbites were shown. His military service and the social services his church has provided are unquestionably impressive. And if he rags on Obama a bit, that too might actually be helpful to Obama.
The whole brouhaha was a stupid, unfair controversy that drew on awful racial stereotyping. Some more sunlight will make it less problematic -- and more boring.
April 24, 2008 1:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes yes yes
I could not agree more. What drive hatred is fear. What drives fear is ignorance.
The more people know the better.
April 24, 2008 1:45 PM | Reply |