In a measure of her eagerness to end “sniper-gate,” Hillary Clinton risked alienating black voters Tuesday by attacking Barack Obama for sticking with his controversial pastor.
“Given all we have heard and seen, he would not have been my pastor,” Clinton said of Obama’s spiritual mentor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. “You know, we don’t have a choice when it comes to our relatives. We have a choice when it comes to our pastors and the churches we attend.”
It was the first time Clinton waded into the racially charged debate over Wright. Wright’s incendiary rhetoric from the pulpit — including the exhortation “God damn America!” — prompted Obama to give a major speech on race relations last week in Philadelphia.
“After originally refusing to play politics with this issue, it’s disappointing to see Hillary Clinton’s campaign sink to this low in a transparent effort to distract attention away from the story she made up about dodging sniper fire in Bosnia,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said.
He was referring to Clinton’s claim that she came under fire during a 1996 visit to Bosnia-Herzegovina. The claim has been disproved in recent days by news footage.
Hoping to end the sniper controversy, Clinton has offered a variety of explanations, initially shrugging it off as “a minor blip” caused by “sleep deprivation.”
“Last week, for the first time in 12 years or so, I misspoke,” she acknowledged Tuesday to KDKA radio in Pittsburgh.
Burton countered: “First time in 12 years she misspoke? Really?” He then cited “four instances where Hillary Clinton misremembers sniper fire.” Clinton’s campaign counterattacked by saying Obama has a long “record of exaggerations and misstatements.”
Clinton’s critics have accused her of taking liberties with the truth. In a report issued in October 2000, independent counsel Robert Ray said Clinton gave a “factually false” statement when she denied involvement in the firing of White House travel office employees.
