White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs brushed away suggestions that controversial remarks made by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) could be compared to a suggestion made by former Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) that the U.S. would be better off if now-deceased Senator Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) had been elected on a segregationist platform.
“I don’t understand how one draws the analogy to a former Majority Leader expressing his support for the defeat of Harry Truman in 1948 so that Strom Thurmond would be president running on a states’ rights ticket,” Gibbs said during a press conference Monday. “To draw that analogy strains any intellectual enterprise or any ... reality.”
The Press Secretary seemed to take a swipe at Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who made the comparison on a talk show Sunday.
“I understand what people have to say ... to get themselves on T.V.,” Gibbs remarked. “I suggest they spend about twenty seconds reading a little history”
Reid reportedly told reporters amid the 2008 Presidential campaign that then-Senator Barack Obama would benefit from being “light-skinned” and having “no negro dialect.” The president accepted Reid’s subsequent apology.
“The President didn’t take offense personally, but believes ... that this is an unfortunate choice of words,” Gibbs said.
Lott’s comments were made during a ceremony for Strom Thurmond’s birthday in 2002. The Mississippi Republican said that if Thurmond had won the presidency, the U.S. would not “have had all these problems over all these years.” Lott resigned from his leadership post after the remarks prompted a wave of controversy.
Gibbs declined to speculate on how Reid could have more appropriately phrased his statement.
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“I don’t understand how one draws the analogy to a former Majority Leader expressing his support for the defeat of Harry Truman in 1948 so that Strom Thurmond would be president running on a states’ rights ticket,” Gibbs said during a press conference Monday. “To draw that analogy strains any intellectual enterprise or any ... reality.”
The Press Secretary seemed to take a swipe at Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who made the comparison on a talk show Sunday.
“I understand what people have to say ... to get themselves on T.V.,” Gibbs remarked. “I suggest they spend about twenty seconds reading a little history”
Reid reportedly told reporters amid the 2008 Presidential campaign that then-Senator Barack Obama would benefit from being “light-skinned” and having “no negro dialect.” The president accepted Reid’s subsequent apology.
“The President didn’t take offense personally, but believes ... that this is an unfortunate choice of words,” Gibbs said.
Lott’s comments were made during a ceremony for Strom Thurmond’s birthday in 2002. The Mississippi Republican said that if Thurmond had won the presidency, the U.S. would not “have had all these problems over all these years.” Lott resigned from his leadership post after the remarks prompted a wave of controversy.
Gibbs declined to speculate on how Reid could have more appropriately phrased his statement.