Bob Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET), apologized for comments he made in South Carolina last Sunday that hinted at Illinois senator and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's use of drugs as a teenager.
"Sometimes in campaigns you get carried away in your zeal to support your candidate. And you say things that are inappropriate and not proper for a campaign that should be based on the issues," said Johnson in a phone interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN's "The Situation Room." "And that is why I issued this personal apology to Senator Obama, I know Senator Obama. I have a great deal of respect for him. And I'm glad that his campaign has responded and accepted the apology."
Obama wrote openly about his teen years, including his use of "pot" and "blow" in his memoir that became a national best seller after he ascended to the senate.
Last Sunday, during a campaign stop in South Carolina with Senator Clinton, Johnson said about Obama: "As an African American, I am frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues, when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood, that I won't say what he was doing in the neighborhood but he said it in his book ... to say these two people would denigrate the accomplishments of civil rights marchers."
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