Jeremiah Wright - Obama Presidency Oral History Back Jeremiah Wright Index / People Transcripts David Axelrod ...for that. I wanted to ask you about Reverend Jeremiah Wright and the comments that surfaced in Marc... ...to address the controversy surrounding Reverend Wright 's comments? It came on us reall... ...And we put out a statement repudiating Reverend Wright 's statements. Obama took the statemen... ...for that. Had it not been for the Jeremiah Wright controversy, do you think Senator Obam... ...have made a speech as explicit as the Reverend Wright speech. Thanks for that. In the week... ...was, of course, the controversy around Reverend Jeremiah Wright . Because in a certain sense, tha... ...that took place? How did— No, Reverend Wright was not a new concern to me. We wer... ...been doing a piece for Rolling Stone on Reverend Wright and had some really incendiary quote... ...really incendiary quotes in there. And Reverend Wright was supposed to give the invocation a... ...I called Obama and I said, “Look, if Reverend Wright appears on the podium, and this stor... ...And this bunch of calls ensued. Reverend Wright was there, and he prayed with th... ...going on. And this mashup tape comes of Reverend Wright 's hits, basically taking three year... ...we needed to put out a statement on Reverend Wright that disassociated him from some o... ...“I want to do a speech on race and Reverend Wright .” We had discouraged him. He wanted t... ...He was trying to be respectful to Reverend Wright , who was, in fact, his spiritua... ...said, and the experience that shaped Reverend Wright . That was an experience that wa... ...because of his relationship with Reverend Wright and what Reverend Wright had meant t... ...with Reverend Wright and what Reverend Wright had meant to him. And third, reporter... Show more... Scott Gration ...at the same time, we were fighting with Jeremiah Wright . You've got to pick a side. Eithe... ...he's a Muslim, or [laughs] he's a Jeremiah Wright guy. But then, John McCain ended u... Gregory Craig ...had been with him during the Reverend [Jeremiah A.] Wright [Jr.] stuff. I might have seen more o... ...himself when he did his response to the Reverend Wright issue was so much better than anybod... ...candidate of a major party, was the Reverend Wright speech, where everything got canceled... Austan Goolsbee ...For sure the controversy about Reverend Wright in Chicago, and when Obama gets up an... ...want to say—that was about race. As the Reverend Wright stuff came out, it certainly seemed i... Brittany Packnett ...be incredibly weaponized. I'm watching Jeremiah Wright say something that I have heard i... Josh Earnest ...it was not long after that that the Reverend Wright stuff came out, and that definitel... ...you talk about that moment around Reverend Wright , and maybe more broadly, how yo... ...race and racism around Obama? The Reverend Wright stuff—I was in Chicago for it, so I wa... ...that were coming up, and there's the Reverend Wright stuff, and it was a period of—actually... Paulette Aniskoff ...Carolina and the bottom fell out with Reverend Wright stuff. We all of a sudden couldn'... Tommy Vietor ...Hillary Clinton and Obama over Reverend [Jeremiah A.] Wright [Jr.] in the worst months you coul... ...good after Super Tuesday, but then the Reverend Wright stuff all came out in earnest, and i... ...that happened, because I think if the Reverend Wright stuff had come out in October, befor... Load more Transcripts Related Topics go to the Science Science go to the LGBTQ Policy LGBTQ Policy go to the Immigration Immigration go to the Supreme Court Supreme Court go to the Wartime Presidency Wartime Presidency