Obama Won't Distance Himself from Wright

Amanda Carpenter | March 14, 2008 12:34 PM

Barack Obama refused to rebuke controversial sermons from his longtime pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright in which Wright invokes racial slurs and condemns America.

Instead, Obama would only say he "disagrees" with some things Wright has said and people were "cherrypicking" from Wright's sermons.

Here is the transcript of an interview David Brown, of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review did with Obama on the subject:

Q: I don't know if you've seen it, but it's all over the wire today (from an ABC News story), a statement that your pastor (the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's South Side) made in a sermon in 2003 that instead of singing "God Bless America," black people should sing a song essentially saying "God Damn America

A: I haven't seen the line. This is a pastor who is on the brink of retirement who in the past has made some controversial statements. I profoundly disagree with some of these statements.
Q: What about this particular statement?
A: Obviously, I disagree with that. Here is what happens when you just cherry-pick statements from a guy who had a 40-year career as a pastor. There are times when people say things that are just wrong. But I think it's important to judge me on what I've said in the past and what I believe.