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Meet people on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 10:50:06 PM
BARACK Obama says he is outraged at "destructive" comments made by his former pastor, rejecting his friend of 20 years as his White House bid wobbles.
In his most steely comments yet on the controversy, Senator Obama said he was saddened and angry, a day after fiery pastor Jeremiah Wright held forth at a combative news conference in Washington.
"I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened over the spectacle that we saw yesterday," Senator Obama told reporters today in North Carolina, which, along with Indiana, holds its Democratic primary next week.
"I have known Reverend Wright for almost 20 years. The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago," Senator Obama said of a man who conducted his marriage and christened his two daughters.
"His comments were not only divisive and destructive but I believe they end up giving comfort to those that prey on hate.
"I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church."
"They certainly don't portray accurately my values and beliefs.
"If Reverend Wright thinks that is political posturing, as he put it, then he doesn't know me very well.
"Based on his remarks yesterday, then I might not know him as well as I thought either."
The Illinois senator, battling Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, also noted that he had given Mr Wright "the benefit of the doubt" by refusing to disown him in a major speech on race in Philadelphia.
Mr Wright rocked the Democratic race when videos of his inflammatory sermons appeared on YouTube and were picked up by US cable television stations.
In one incendiary video, Mr Wright said black citizens should not sing God Bless America but "God Damn America" over their treatment by whites.
He also said that the September 11 attacks in 2001 were a payback for US foreign policies overseas.
Yesterday, Mr Wright denounced the controversy around his comments as an attack on the black church.
"This is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright. It has nothing to do with Senator Obama. It is an attack on the black church by people who know nothing about the African-American experience," he said at Washington's National Press Club.