RICHMOND, Va. — The billionaire co-founder of Black Entertainment Television apologized Monday for pretending to stutter at a campaign event as she mimicked the Democratic candidate for governor.
BET co-founder Sheila Johnson, for years a major donor to President Barack Obama, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and other Democrats, stunned Virginia political observers in July by endorsing Republican Bob McDonnell in the governor's race.
He is running against Democrat Creigh Deeds to replace Kaine, who is barred by state law from running for a second straight term.
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."
As the race to become America's next president trudges on, the top two Democratic campaigns are beginning to look more like soap operas than a chance to tell voters where they stand on today's top issues.
Black Entertainment Television founder and staunch Hillary Clinton supporter Robert L. Johnson took a nasty swipe at her presidential rival Barack Obama over the weekend. Plus folks are questioning Obama's choice of a Jay-Z song during an Iowa party, and Clinton continues to defend her recent comments that appeared to diminish the contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
While trying to make a point about presidential leadership and Obama’s periodic references to Dr. King, Sen. Clinton said: “Dr King’s dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It took a president to get it done.”
Clinton has since said she was misinterpreted. In an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday morning, she again explained the comments were in response to a speech Obama made comparing himself to both President Kennedy and to King, and accused the Obama campaign of "deliberately distorting" the words of she and her husband on civil rights.
"Dr. King had been on the front lines. He had been leading a movement," Clinton told host Tim Russert. "But Dr. King understood, which is why he made it very clear, that there has to be a coming to terms of our country politically in order to make the changes that would last for generations beyond the iconic, extraordinary speeches that he gave. That's why he campaigned for Lyndon Johnson in 1964. That's why he was there when those great pieces of legislation were passed.
"Does he deserve the lion's share of the credit for moving our country and moving our political process? Yes, he does. But he also had partners who were in the political system."
Asked whether he had taken offense at Sen. Clinton's remarks, the Illinois Democrat said he had not been the one to raise the subject.
"Senator Clinton made an unfortunate remark, an ill-advised remark, about King and Lyndon Johnson. I didn't make the statement," Obama said in a conference call with reporters. "I haven't remarked on it. And she, I think, offended some folks who felt that somehow diminished King's role in bringing about the Civil Rights Act. She is free to explain that. But the notion that somehow this is our doing is ludicrous."
At a South Carolina rally for Sen. Clinton at Columbia College, Bob Johnson attempted to clarify Sen. Clinton's comments, saying she did not mean to take any credit away from the civil rights icon.
Dr. King had led a “moral crusade,” Johnson said, but such crusades have to be “written into law. That is the way the legislative process works in this nation and that takes political leadership. That’s all Hillary was saying.”
A former Clinton campaign official in New Hampshire had to resign last month after he publicly suggested that Republicans would probably use Mr. Obama’s drug use in his youth against him. But Johnson seemed to have no hesitation in alluding to Obama's past encounters with marijuana and cocaine as a youth.
He told the Columbia College crowd: “To me, 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 since Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood – and I won’t say what he was doing, but he said it in the book – when they have been involved.”
Moments later, he added: “That kind of campaign behavior does not resonate with me, for a guy who says, ‘I want to be a reasonable, likable, Sidney Poitier ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.’ And I’m thinking, I’m thinking to myself, this ain’t a movie. This is real life.”
The comments unleashed a back-and-forth round of responses from both campaigns. When asked about his reference to Obama's drug past, Johnson released the following statement through the Clinton campaign:
"My comments today were referring to Barack Obama’s time spent as a community organizer, and nothing else. Any other suggestion is simply irresponsible and incorrect. When Hillary Clinton was in her twenties she worked to provide protections for abused and battered children and helped ensure that children with disabilities could attend public school. That results oriented leadership — even as a young person — is the reason I am supporting Hillary Clinton.”
In response to Johnson's press release, Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said: “His tortured explanation doesn’t hold up against his original statement. And it’s troubling that neither the campaign nor Senator Clinton — who was there as the remark was made – is willing to condemn it as they did when another prominent supporter recently said a similar thing.”
Meanwhile, staffers for Obama have accused former president Bill Clinton of being racially insensitive when he said in New Hampshire last week that Obama’s campaign was a “fairytale.”
During her "Meet the Press" appearance, Clinton defended her husband's words, saying his "fairytale" remark referred only to Obama's Iraq war position and not his standing as a black candidate.
In still more drama, there is now talk that the choice of Obama's camp to play Jay-Z's song "99 Problems" during a victory party in Iowa was a strategic stab at Sen. Clinton. Jay-Z boasts in the hook, "I got 99 problems but a b*tch ain't one."
"We didn't know he used that," a Clinton spokesperson told the New York Post's Page Six.
Obama has said in previous interviews that he listens to rap music from time to time.
"I tell you what, I can tell you the kinds of stuff I love dancing to . . . I'm sort of the generation of Stevie Wonder and Earth, Wind and Fire," he told CNN on the campaign trail. "But I'm sort of hip to the younger stuff. You know, like Beyoncé's 'Crazy in Love.' That's a good song to dance to. Eminem . . . although he curses sometimes."
