Bill Clinton denies 'race card' comment
Former President Bill Clinton denied Tuesday he had accused Sen. Barack Obama's campaign of "playing the race card" during an interview Monday. A recording of the former president making the comment is posted on the WHYY Web site. It says he made the comment in a telephone interview with the Philadelphia public radio station Monday night.startclickprintexclude--> Clinton responded: "When did I say that and to whom did I say that?" "You have mischaracterized it to get another cheap story to divert the American people from the real urgent issues before us, and I choose not to play your games today," Clinton added. "I said what I said -- you can go back and look at the interview, and if you will be real honest you will also report what the question was and what the answer was. But I'm not helping you." Clinton did not respond when asked what he meant when he charged that the Obama campaign had a memo in which they said they had planned to play the race card. Meanwhile, at a Pittsburgh press availability on Tuesday, Obama was asked about Clinton's charge that his campaign had drawn up plans to use "the race card." "Hold on a second,'' he said. "So former President Clinton dismissed my victory in South Carolina as being similar to Jesse Jackson and he is suggesting that somehow I had something to do with it?" "You better ask him what he meant by that. I have no idea what he meant. These were words that came out of his mouth. Not words that came out of mine.'' Clinton commented just before the South Carolina primary that "Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in '84 and '88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here." |
Watch more of the Clintons on the trail in Pennsylvania »
