SALON

Monday, Jan 11, 2010 9:29 PM UTC

Reid speaks on “Negro” comment

Majority leader says he's "very proud" he was "one of the first" to suggest Obama run for president

By

Topics: Harry Reid, War Room, 2008 Elections, Barack Obama, Game Change, Political Books,

He’s already apologized for his comments about President Obama’s race, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had some more damage control to do on Monday. So, in a press conference from Nevada that was seen on national television, that’s what he did, speaking in public about the remarks for the first time.

It was, to put it mildly, something of an awkward spectacle. Reid was just quoted as describing Obama as “light-skinned” and praising him for having “no Negro dialect, unless he want[s] to have one.” And Monday, at the press conference, he was trying to fix that apparently self-inflicted wound by saying, “First of all, I am very proud that [I was] if not the first, one of the first people to suggest that Barack Obama run for president. I’m very happy about that.”

Reid also spent some time name-dropping prominent people of color whom, he says, have expressed their support.

“My heart has been warmed as to the response I’ve gotten around the country,” he said. “Whether [NAACP chairman] Julian Bond, whether it’s as a call I got coming to the facility here today from the attorney general of the United States, Eric Holder. In effect, he said, ‘I’ve known you for a long time. Anything I can do, anyone you want me to talk to, I’ll be happy to do that.’ …

I had a call last night — it was late. I was surprised he was up this late — from [Interior Secretary Ken] Salazar. And he said, ‘Harry, you make sure you tell everybody that you have done more for diversity in the United States Senate than all the rest of the people put together.’”

Even despite the support from those he named, and other Democrats as well, it’s pretty clear the majority leader — who was already facing the potential of a tough reelection campaign this year — wants to move on, and quickly. He closed the press conference by saying, “I’m not going to dwell on this anymore. It’s in the book. I’ve made all the statements I’m going to.”

Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon. More Alex Koppelman.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 34 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
219 points220 points | 7 comments
vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the persecuted late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
157 points158 points | comment
vote
Loaded terminology like "entitlements" and "welfare" skews the debate and alters America. How right-wingers use semantic tricks to kill government.
100 points101 points | 30 comments
vote
Obstruction will ruin the GOP: Playing politics and abusing the system can excite the extremes, but it's a recipe for long-term political disaster
45 points46 points | 8 comments
vote
With the help of Photoshop, artist Yao Lu has made shanshui — traditional ink paintings — of China's landfills
25 points26 points | 1 comment

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations