Rev. Wright: Media Used Me Against Obama
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This is a rush transcript from "America's Election HQ," November 7, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GREG JARRETT, CO-HOST: Welcome back. The tapes of his controversial sermons threatened to derail Barack Obama's presidential bid. Obviously, they did not. But Rev. Jeremiah Wright is not finished stirring up trouble, not by a long- shot. In fact, we just heard from him for the first time since his now- estranged former parishioner became president-elect.
FOX's Douglas Kennedy has the video.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We now have the privilege of hearing from our guest, Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.
DOUGLAS KENNEDY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice over): He has been uncharacteristically quiet for months. But now, days after the election, Jeremiah Wright is speaking up, and lashing out at the media.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}• Video: Watch the Douglas Kennedy package
REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT, PASTOR, TRINITY UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST: Their intention was to use me as a weapon of mass destruction to destroy that man's candidacy.
KENNEDY: At issue, for the revved up reverend, who nearly derailed Barack Obama's presidential campaign, it's the sermon he gave in the days following 9/11.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}WRIGHT: The stuff we have done overseas has now been brought back into our own front yard.
KENNEDY: He says he was actually preaching forgiveness, but he said the press ignored his message, choosing instead his incessantly played sound bites.
WRIGHT: America's chickens are coming home to roost.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The media did not want that sermon heard nor balanced nor my faith nor my preaching. They didn't want that. They couldn't care less about what I preached.
KENNEDY: Wright's post-election comments came at a forum on race and religion in Milford, Connecticut. He also says he never thought Barack Obama shared the views he preached from the podium at the Trinity Baptist Church.
WRIGHT: People sitting in the church do not agree with everything that pastors say, all right? So that when I say or don't say has no - it is not index in terms of what Sen. Obama believed or believes.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}KENNEDY: Which is apparently how many voters felt given Tuesday's outcome, even though Republicans put up a national ad earlier this week featuring some of Wright's most controversial moments.
WRIGHT: U.S. of KKKA!
KENNEDY: Wright says Obama's election does not end the historical issue of racism in America. But he did offer some hope.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}WRIGHT: I think in our children's lifetime, we're going to see, not the same kind of drawing lines in the sand, issues as it pertains to race as we are familiar with based upon what we learned.
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KENNEDY: He says the main race issue now is poverty. He says there are serious structural problems in the society when so many Americans don't have healthcare. He says that should be our political focus today and in the near future. That's it from here. Back to you.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}JARRETT: All right. Douglas Kennedy, thanks very much. It's interesting. Rev. Wright could have, before the election, done what he just did - exonerate Barack Obama.
ALEXIS GLICK, CO-HOST: Yes. It's very sort of depressing to watch this after the fact. And you wonder whether or not he is rethinking what he did. But he had plenty of occasions to step back from the fold, to not step up to the podium and say what he had to say. He only made matters worse, and you wonder why now, now that he is president-elect, he took the time to say this.
JARRETT: Sure. Yes. And especially needling Barack Obama saying before the election saying, typical politician, he will say anything to get elected - awful words for the president-elect, now president-elect.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}GLICK: All right.
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