Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said that recent remarks by his former spiritual advisor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, upset him, according to The Associated Press.
After lying low for several weeks, Wright has made several appearances recently, starting with an interview with Bill Moyers that aired this past Friday and continued with a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Mon., April 28.
At the latter event, Wright said, in part, 'This is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright. It has nothing to do with Sen. Obama. It is an attack on the black church launched by people who know nothing about the African-American religious tradition.'
Obama called a press conference in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Tues., April 29. 'I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle that we saw yesterday,' Obama said, adding that Wright's views about the African-American church were inaccurate. The senator also criticized Wright's remarks about the U.S. government possibly being responsible for spreading AIDS within the Black community, among other issues, CNN reported. Obama added, 'The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago.'
Obama also stated that he called the news conference in part 'to make people absolutely clear that, obviously, whatever relationship I had with Rev. Wright has changed,' according to USA Today.